The Chinese "Nobel Prize"

The "Chinese Nobel Prize" was awarded for the first time

Maxim Rousseau, " <url>"

The public organization Future Forum, founded in 2015 in Beijing, announced the names of the first laureates of the Future Science Prize established by it. The Chinese media called it the "Chinese Nobel Prize".

According to the organizers, the prize will be awarded annually for achievements in two fields of science, while each year the selected areas may be different. The number of laureates may not exceed five. The jury consists of only Chinese scientists, and only researchers working in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are also awarded. In monetary terms, each of the two awards presented annually is equivalent to one million US dollars.

Commentators suggest that the establishment of the new prize was the result of the awarding of the first Nobel Prize to a scientist from China last year. Pharmacologist Yu Tu received an award for creating a cure for malaria. After that, the question was discussed for a long time in China why there are not enough programs to encourage outstanding scientists in the country.

Robin Li, executive director of the Chinese Internet search engine giant Baidu, as well as several other top managers of private companies, financed the award. The founders hope that the awards will be based on a fair and independent selection. The scientific awards and grants that existed in China earlier, which were funded by the government, have caused repeated accusations of unfair selection of laureates.

This time the awards were awarded for achievements in the field of life science and physics. Dennis Ming Yuk Lo, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a member of the Royal Society of London, received an award for the discovery of a method for extracting the DNA of an embryo from the mother's blood. The discovery led to the emergence of now widely used non-invasive tests that allow you to determine from the blood of a pregnant woman if the fetus has a variety of disorders, such as Down syndrome. The Center for Genomic Research in the city of Shenzhen has already conducted more than one million such tests. […]

The prize for achievements in physics was awarded to Qi-Kun Xue from Tsinghua University in Beijing for the experimental discovery of high-temperature superconductivity at the interface of materials and for the detection of the quantum anomalous Hall effect in magnetic topological insulators.

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Dennis Luo and Zikun Xue. Photo: www.futureprize.org

Qikun Xue, upon learning of the award, said that he would share the money "with his colleagues who have made a significant contribution to both discoveries." Dennis Lo was taken by surprise by the news about the award, and he honestly admitted that he did not know what he would do with the money. Lo believes that the sensational nature of the news about the new award will serve science well, as it will attract a new generation of students to fundamental research. The scientist said that he himself was inspired to study science by the news of Watson and Crick deciphering the structure of the DNA molecule. He admits that compared to the Nobel Prize, the Chinese Prize is like "a plant that has borne its first flowers," but hopes that over time it will acquire a status and history that will allow it to stand on a par with the authoritative awards of the world of science.

The official ceremony of awarding the Future Science Prize will take place in Beijing in January next year.

Portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  20.09.2016