Eight mainland scholars won the Future Science Prize this year

The 2023 Future Science Prize laureates were announced today, with eight mainland scholars rewarded for their outstanding scientific achievements with a monetary award of up to $500,000 US Dollars each.

The winners were announced via a press conference held simultaneously in Hong Kong and Beijing, with live broadcasting online.

Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong, who gave his speech at the conference, said the record-breaking number of laureates demonstrates the excellency of China's scientific research and its achievements.

The Future Science Prize consists of three categories: Life Science, Physical Science and Mathematics and Computer Science.

Chai Jijie, professor of the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University, and Zhou Jianmin, a researcher from China Academy of Sciences Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology, receive the Life Sciences Prize for the discovery of resistosomes and elucidation of their molecular structures and functions in plant immune responses against pathogens.

There were also two winners for the Physical Sciences Prize. They are physicians specializing in superconductivity Zhao Zhongxian and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Chen Xianhui.

Their seminal breakthroughs in the discovery of high-temperature superconducting materials and systematic advancements in elevating the transition temperature got them the prize.

Four scientists won the Mathematics and Computer Science Prize, which included scholars He Kaiming, Ren Shaoqing, Zhang Xiangyu and the late chief scientist of Megvii Sun Jian. The prizes were given for their fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence by introducing deep residual learning.

The Future Science Prize is a privately funded science prize initiated in 2016 by a group of scientists and entrepreneurs. The donors are industry leaders with high reputations, outstanding contributions to society and a solid commitment to the value of science.

The award ceremony will be held on October 17 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which is the first time in the city. A "Future Science Prize Week" will also be launched to further enhance the science knowledge and interests of the younger generation in Hong Kong.