King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, presented the King Faisal International Prizes to this year's winners at a ceremony here Saturday. The King was accompanied by Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior for the event that was attended by several princes and senior officials and included a photo session for memorial pictures with the King and a dinner in honor of the winners. Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah, Director General of King Faisal Foundation and Head of the Commission of King Faisal International Prize,in his speech highlighted the King's efforts in the fields of development, reform, culture, understanding, dialogue, fraternity, concord and tolerance. This 2009 prize for Service to Islam went to the Principal Shariah Society for Qur'an and Sunnah Scholars in Egypt. This year's prize for Service to Islam went to the Principal Shari'ah Society for Qur'an and Sunnah Scholars in Egypt. The organization was recognized for its perseverance, its total dedication to the cause of Islam and its remoteness from any political ambition. The prize for Islamic Studies went to Professor Abdulsalam Mohammed Cheddadi of Morocco for his seminal studies on the works of Ibn Khaldun, a leading authority on Islamic thought. The Arabic Language and Literature prize went to Prof. Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Al-Manie of Saudi Arabia, professor emeritus of Arabic Literature at King Saud University. Al-Manie was commended for his distinguished efforts in editing, verifying and elucidating several Arabic literary works of the 3rd to 7th Century Hijra. In the Science category, the prize was awarded jointly to Prof. Richard Henry Friend of the UK, Chairman of the Council of the School of Physical Sciences and Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and Prof. Rashid Alievich Sunyaev of Russia, chief scientist of the Space Research Institute at the Russian Academy of Science and Director of the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany. Professor Friend pioneered the physics and engineering of semi-conductor devices made of plastic materials. Professor Sunayev has made fundamental contributions to astrophysics and cosmology. Medicine prize was given to Prof. Ronald Levy of the US, head of the Division of Oncology at Stanford University's Department of Medicine. Prof. Levy has been recognized for his pioneering studies in Cancer Immunotherapy. __
