Scientists honored as Li stresses innovation
Print Edition
PHYSICAL chemist Zhang Cunhao and nuclear weapons expert Cheng Kaijia won China’s top science award yesterday for their outstanding contributions to scientific and technological innovation.
The pair, both academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, were presented with certificates by President Xi Jinping at a ceremony held to honor distinguished scientists and research achievements.
Winners are each entitled to an award of 5 million yuan (US$826,000). Of the prize, 4.5 million has to be spent on research programs while the rest is for personal use.
Addressing the National Science and Technology Awards ceremony, Premier Li Keqiang said: “China has entered a new stage in which the country must rely more on sci-tech innovation to guide and support its economic development and social progress.”
China’s traditional growth mode, which was mainly driven by factor input, is difficult to sustain and is gradually losing its competitive edge in medium and low-end products, Li said.
The country needs breakthroughs in cutting-edge science and technology as well as in strategic sectors vital to the national economy and people’s livelihoods, he said.
Zhang was born in February 1928 in north China’s Tianjin. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1947 and went to the United States to further his studies. He obtained a master’s degree in 1950.
In 1951, he returned to China and devoted himself to scientific research at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics.
During his 60 years of research, Zhang focused on many pioneering technologies, including water gas technology, rocket propellants and the lasers.
Zhang was head of the National Natural Science Foundation for eight years, during which the funds for natural sciences increased eight-fold. A fund for outstanding youth was also set up at his request.
Nuclear weapons expert Cheng, 95, has been involved in more than 30 of China’s nuclear experiments, including the country’s first atomic bomb.
For 20 years from 1963, he lived in the vast Gobi Desert in southwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Cheng was also involved in writing China’s first academic document for atomic bomb research and experiments, and in the formation of the institute of nuclear weapons experiments.
He promoted the scientific development of nuclear experiments and improved the design of nuclear weapons.
No more than two scientists a year have been honored in the awards which were launched in 2000.
Zhang, Cheng and 22 other scientists have received the award. There was only one winner in 2002 and 2006, and no winner in 2004.
All are distinguished scientists who made extraordinary contributions to China’s scientific development and technical innovation. Their average age is 83.5.
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