BEIJING, June 26,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- After a two-year hiatus, the
country's highest science and technology awards were announced in
Beijing, with two scientists,
Li Deren and Xue Qikun, winning the national top sci-tech
award for the year 2023.
The awards are an important basic system to which China has long adhered to encourage basic
scientific and technological innovation. The newly-issued awards
are an epitome of the country's phased achievements in
innovation-driven development, analysts said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday underscored the
importance of sci-tech modernization and innovation in pursuing
Chinese modernization and high-quality development.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China
Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission,
presented China's top sci-tech
award and made the remarks at the national sci-tech conference.
Li is a renowned photogrammetry and remote sensing expert, while
Xue is a prominent scientist in the field of condensed matter
physics.
Li, 84, has been dedicated to improving China's surveying and remote sensing
capabilities. He has successfully developed core technologies for
global high-precision positioning and mapping using satellite
remote sensing technology, solving a series of challenges in the
high-precision processing of remote sensing satellite images.
China's satellite remote
sensing has progressed "from nothing to something, and from
something to excellence, achieving self-reliance and independence,"
Li, who was also named the ambassador of the Space Day of
China 2024, told the Global Times
in Wuhan in April, noting that as
a teacher and academician engaged in space remote sensing
applications, he was very pleased by the progress.
Thanks to the country's superior system and the importance
placed upon the missions by the central government, especially
since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has launched major initiatives such as
the Gaofen remote sensing project and the BeiDou Navigation
Satellite System project. China's
remote sensing technology serves the public and contributes to
world peace, Li said.
According to Li, space exploration comprises three major
missions: Earth observation, deep space exploration and space-borne
research.
"Space exploration involves observing Earth through remote
sensing, navigation, and communication technology. It serves
sustainable development and humanity by helping us understand the
natural environment, find resources, and respond to natural
disasters," Li said.
Regarding deep space exploration, Li said, "We launch satellites
into deep space to explore the solar system, study black holes, and
investigate fundamental questions about the origins of the universe
and humanity. China has sent
robotic probes to the moon and Mars, and we will soon send crewed
missions to the moon."
"Space-borne research involves establishing space stations to
conduct in-orbit research, including studies on the origins of
life," the senior expert noted.
Xue, 61, has achieved several groundbreaking scientific
breakthroughs.
Xue led his team in the first experimental observation of the
quantum anomalous Hall effect, which had significant international
influence in academic circles. This major research achievement was
praised by Nobel laureate Yang
Chen-Ning as "the first Nobel Prize-level physics paper
published from a Chinese laboratory."
Xue once said that discovering new scientific phenomena and laws
is the shining pearl on the crown of basic research. "For a nation
to be strong, we must certainly create things that are truly
scientific discoveries in the world," he noted.
This year's national science and technology award fully reflects
the country's emphasis on strengthening basic research and
application of basic research, Chu Jianxun, a research expert on
the national innovation ecosystem and professor at the University
of Science and Technology of China, told the Global Times on Monday.
The awards selection is an epitome of the country's phased
achievements in innovation-driven development.
"Our country's scientific research development has achieved
high-level technological self-reliance in key core technology
areas, with the strategic orientation toward developing the world's
cutting-edge technologies, facing the economic main battlefield,
the country's major needs, and the people's health," Chu
explained.
Technological innovation has been applied to support
high-quality development, ensure high-level security and nurture
new quality productive forces, establishing a competitive and
attractive innovation ecosystem globally, Chu noted.
This achievement could not have been achieved without the
comprehensive design of the country. Some major topics from the
perspective of national needs have been launched, resulting in a
batch of top-notch domestic and even internationally leading
important outcomes, the expert said.
Along with the two top sci-tech awards, research on the
computational prediction of topological electronic materials and 48
other achievements were honored with a State Natural Science Award.
Dozens of projects were also presented with the State Technological
Invention Award. More than 100 projects were issued the State
Scientific and Technological Progress Award, according to the
Xinhua News Agency.
Notably, the field of basic research continues to yield
significant breakthroughs, as evidenced by the national natural
science award consecutively granting first prizes for nine
years.
Young and middle-aged scientific talents have emerged as a
crucial driving force in China's
technological advancements, constituting around 40 percent of the
recipients across the three major award categories.
In the national natural science award, individuals under the age
of 45 represented over half of the awardees, showcasing the growing
influence of the younger generation in shaping the country's
scientific landscape.
According to data from the Ministry of Science and Technology,
China's total number of R & D
personnel ranks first in the world, young scientific and
technological talents have become the main force of scientific
research, with 80 percent of the National Natural Science
Foundation projects being undertaken by young personnel under the
age of 45.
The 2023 top science and technology award reemerged to the
public eye after a two-year break, highlighting its stronger
credibility as the top scientific award this year.
The nomination system for the award has been adjusted from the
previous once a year to the current every two or three years, a
Shanghai-based official on
scientific award was quoted by Shangguan News.
This year's award is equivalent to the accumulation of three
years of projects since there were no national science and
technology awards in 2021 and 2022, making the difficulty of
winning the award significantly higher than in the past.
"In the future, the competition for national science and
technology awards will become increasingly fierce and the
requirements will rise," the Shanghai-based official said.
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SOURCE Global Times