The 2018 Yidan Prize Laureate Larry Hedges speaks during the 2019 Yidan Prize Conference Series: The Americas, at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, the United States, on May 23, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)
CHICAGO, May 23 (Xinhua) -- 2019 Yidan Prize Conference Series: The Americas kicked off Thursday at Northwestern University in Evanston, U.S. state of Illinois, exploring the future of evidence and innovation in education.
About 160 participants, mostly U.S. professors and researcher in education, entrepreneurs and investors of education industry, attended the opening ceremony.
As a co-host of the conference, Morton Schapiro, president of Northwestern University said to the audience that his school will work with Yidan Prize Foundation.
"We have a wonderful discussion about our institute for policy research, and ways that Northwestern University can continue to work together with Yidan (Prize) Foundation for the betterment of the world," Schapiro said.
Chen Yidan, founder of Yidan Prize, said in the opening remark that he sees huge potential for educators to benefit and be inspired from fruitful exchanges and collaborations with Yidan Prize Laureates and high quality nominees.
"I hope the Yidan Prize can be a platform that facilitates inspired dialogues... at today's conference, I hope that we can all exchange insights openly and learn form each other," Chen said.
This two-day conference will highlight new directions for research and development inspired by the work of the 2018 Yidan Prize Laureates Larry Hedges and Anant Agarwal, including the role that evidence plays in addressing inequities and improving practice in education.
The Yidan Prize was founded in 2006 by Chen Yidan, one of the founders of China's tech giant Tencent. The prize has two categories, education research and education development.
Yidan Prize Laureate receives a gold medal and a total sum of 30 million HK dollars (around 3.9 million U.S. dollars).
Through a series of initiatives, the prize serves to establish a platform that allows the global community to engage in conversation around education and to play a role in education philanthropy.
