Scientists awarded with million yuan prizes
Chen Shiyi (middle) at the award ceremony
Two scientists and a research group in China were honored with 1 million yuan (US$152,670) prizes respectively by the Qiu Shi Science and Technologies Foundation in Fudan University over the weekend.
This year’s Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award laureates were Chen Shiyi, President of South University of Science and Technology of China, and Xie Xiaoliang, director of Biodynamics Optical Imaging Center and director of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics at Peking University.
Chen was awarded for his outstanding research in lattice gas methods and fundamental studies in the theory of turbulence.
Xie is considered a founding father of single-molecule biophysical chemistry and single-molecule enzymology and his researches have helped more than 300 Chinese babies — born without inheriting gene diseases from their parents.
The Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientific Research Team Award was presented to Li Jiayang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Han Bin of the academy’s Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences and Qian Qian of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for their achievements in molecular genetic researches on rice in the past 20 years.
The foundation also awarded 10 young scientists with an annual bonus of US$30,000 lasting three years.
Established in 1994, the foundation was set up to promote scientific and technological progress in China by recognizing and rewarding successful Chinese scientists and scholars. It was named after the previous name of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, formerly known as Qiu Shi Academy. In Chinese, “Qiu Shi” means the pursuit of truth.
Over the past 23 years, 310 scientists in math, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and engineering have received awards.
Chen Ning Yang, a Nobel laureate and a former winner of the Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award winner, said the Qiu Shi awards had witnessed the fast development of scientific and technological researches in China and the heights young scientists have reached.
Ten young scientists win the Outstanding Young Scholar Award.
