Photo: Screenshot of the Future Science Prize website

The 2022 Future Science Prize, a privately-funded science honor founded by a group of eminent scientists and entrepreneurs dubbed “China’s Nobel Prize”, was announced on Sunday for outstanding achievements in basic scientific research. Awarded to three Chinese scholars. Innovation in the basic science of the country.

The Life Science Award, Physical Science Award, and Mathematics and Computer Science Award of the 2022 Future Science Awards went to Li Wenhui, Yang Xueming, and Mok Gaimin, respectively, who each won $1 million, the organizers of the awards announced. . .

Lin Chao, Rotation Chair of the Scientific Committee for the 2022 Future Science Prize, said the winner’s research has had a significant impact internationally. It is the spirit of inquiry and constant scientific research of these scientists that has expanded human cognitive boundaries in the macro- and micro-worlds and set the course for an uncertain future.

Li, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Biological Sciences and a professor at the Tsinghua Institute of Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, received the award for discovering the sodium taurocholate co-transport polypeptide. He contributed to the development of more effective drugs against viruses.

His findings shed light on the molecular mechanisms of hepatitis B and D virus infection that will contribute to the development of more effective prevention and treatment of hepatitis B and D, and are therefore being reviewed by international peers. Widely recognized.

Yang was awarded the Physical Science Prize for the development of a new crossed molecular beam device that has led to breakthroughs in quantum resonance phenomena and geometric phase effects in chemical reactions.

Yang is a scholar of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a professor of the Southern University of Science and Technology, and a researcher of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics.

The winner of the Mathematics and Computer Science Award is Mr. Mok from the University of Hong Kong. Mok created a minimal rational tangent manifold theory and applied it to solve a series of conjectures in the field of algebraic geometry. He also proved his Ax-Schanuel conjecture on Shimura manifolds. This theorem has become an important tool in the field of algebraic geometry.

The Future Science Award aims to recognize China’s scientific breakthroughs and innovations of long-term importance to the world. Chinese research fellows generally believe that the selection of eminent scientists has played a positive role in promoting innovation in China’s basic science and arousing scientific enthusiasm among young people.

Liu Dingzhen, a professor at the School of Life Sciences at Beijing Normal University, told Global Times on Sunday that it is very important to encourage basic science in China. An important factor for a country to eliminate technological bottlenecks, ensure supply chains in international competition, and achieve the goal of becoming a science and technology powerhouse.

A prize committee of 23 distinguished scientists is central to the selection of the prizes. The award ceremony for the 2022 Future Science Prize is scheduled for November.

Since 2016, 24 winners have received the Future Science Prize, all of which are widely recognized by both the scientific community and society. Last year, his Yuen Kwok-yung and Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris from the University of Hong Kong received the Life Science Prize for their major discovery of SARS-CoV-1 as the causative agent of the 2003 global SARS outbreak. did. COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases. Simon Sze from a prestigious university on the island of Taiwan won an award for his science in mathematics and computers.

Previous winners include the late Yuan Longping, known as the “Father of Hybrid Rice,” who received the 2018 Life Science Award for “Hybrids to Increase Yield and Improve Stress Tolerance in Rice. Recognized as a pioneer in harnessing vitality.