Awards recognize China's innovators

Advances in medicine, physics and technology are among those called vital for nation's progress

President Xi Jinping presented the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award on Jan 9 to Tu Youyou, co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, and physicist Zhao Zhongxian, recognizing the country's booming innovation.

Tu is best known for discovering artemisinin, a substance derived from the traditional Chinese medicine qinghaosu, which is used to treat malaria. She is the first woman to receive the national award. Zhao Zhongxian, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has spent four decades researching superconductors.

Twenty-seven scientists have received the nation's top science and technology award since it was established in 2000. It comes with a prize of 5 million yuan ($721,000; 680,900 euros; 595,900).

The award is one way the government encourages fundamental research, Premier Li Keqiang said at the ceremony. Scientists should be dedicated to patient research since China is in greater need of scientific progress than at any other time, he said.

Li paraphrased a Chinese proverb, saying that scientists "could stay silent for a decade" but "try to amaze the world with a single brilliant feat".

He vowed to protect intellectual property rights, which he said are crucial for innovation. The nation will have sustainable development only by relying on innovation, he said.

Li also expressed gratitude to the foreign scientists and scholars who have contributed to China's scientific progress. The country welcomes foreign scholars for entrepreneurship and innovation, he said, adding that the government will provide opportunities and facilities for international talent willing to work in China.

Five foreign experts, including Katharina Kohse-Hoeinghaus, a professor at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, and one organization received China's International Science and Technology Cooperation Award during the ceremony. The Chang'e-3 project shared the Top Science and Technology Progress Award with 19 others.

Research into standards for high-speed wireless communication known as TD-LTE got the State Science and Technology Progress Special Award.

Contact the writers at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 01/13/2017 page15)