A gathering, which brings collectively the nationwide science and expertise award convention, the final assemblies of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the eleventh nationwide congress of the China Association for Science and Technology, is held in Beijing, capital of China, July 8, 2026. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
Two veteran scientists gained China’s high sci-tech award for the 12 months 2025 on Wednesday for his or her groundbreaking contributions to the fields of lithium batteries and radar expertise, respectively, because the nation honored 258 initiatives and 11 specialists for scientific and technological achievements.
Chen Liquan, 86, a researcher on the Institute of Physics below the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and Ben De, 88, a researcher on the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation and likewise a CAE academician, acquired the nation’s highest scientific honor at a gathering in Beijing.
Chen, born right into a rural household in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, grew up within the dim gentle of kerosene lamps, which sparked his lifelong pursuit of bringing electrical energy to the folks. He is well known because the founder, pioneer and chief of China’s lithium battery sector.
Chen constructed China’s first solid-state ionics laboratory from scratch. His crew produced China’s first lithium-ion battery and established the nation’s first pilot manufacturing line utilizing totally homegrown expertise, tools and uncooked supplies.
He pioneered and realized the in-situ solidification battery expertise method, advancing sodium-ion batteries from elementary analysis to commercial-scale deployment, and cementing China’s strategic lead in next-generation battery applied sciences.
Ben, born in a farming household in northeast China’s Jilin Province, entered Harbin Institute of Technology, situated in Heilongjiang Province within the northeast, in 1957. He is acclaimed because the founder of China’s airborne pulse Doppler radar expertise, a significant pioneer of phased array radar expertise, and a forerunner of space-based surveillance radar expertise.
Ben efficiently developed China’s first airborne pulse Doppler fire-control radar and its first large-scale long-range phased array early-warning radar. The two elementary fashionable radar applied sciences he pioneered, pulse Doppler and phased array, have guided the event of China’s land, sea, air and house early-warning and detection techniques.
Wednesday’s assembly conflated the nationwide science and expertise award convention, the final assemblies of the members of the CAS and the CAE, and the eleventh nationwide congress of the China Association for Science and Technology.
In addition to the 2 high honorees, 51 initiatives acquired the State Natural Science Award, 58 initiatives the State Technological Invention Award, and 149 initiatives the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award. Meanwhile, 9 international specialists have been offered with the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.
AWARDS HIGHLIGHT INNOVATION DRIVE
This 12 months’s awards inform a compelling story about the place Chinese science is heading.
For the primary time since 1999, three first prizes of the State Natural Science Award have been offered, which is a transparent signal that the nation’s strategic drive to bolster fundamental analysis and authentic innovation is paying off.
Take the single-atom catalysis challenge, for instance. The authentic idea was first proposed by Chinese researchers and has since gained world recognition throughout fields together with catalysis, chemical engineering, supplies, biology and vitality.
Another profitable challenge exactly measured the energy of a single hydrogen bond utilizing a quantum method, opening up totally new potentialities in condensed matter physics, whereas within the data subject, researchers developed a phosphor-free pure-chip LED expertise that has produced micro-displays and the world’s first yellow-light AR glasses.
Many award-winning initiatives are additionally instantly tied to nationwide strategic wants. One crew developed a system that recreates excessive house situations proper right here on Earth, utilizing electrostatic, ultrasonic and electromagnetic fields to simulate microgravity and pioneering new methods to course of high-temperature metals.
Another challenge pushed the boundaries of ultra-deep drilling, retrieving 8,187 meters of steady terrestrial rock cores from the Cretaceous interval in northeast China’s Songliao Basin. It is the world’s most full report of its variety. The findings have helped Chinese scientists set up a high-precision, multi-disciplinary system for geological relationship and paleoclimate reconstruction.
There are additionally the improvements that contact folks’s day by day lives. In agriculture, researchers tackled long-standing bottlenecks in hybrid rice seed manufacturing by growing new dad or mum strains with superior outcrossing efficiency and super-high-yield hybrid varieties, whereas additionally advancing mechanized, high-efficiency seed manufacturing methods.
The breakthroughs instantly deal with the challenges of low per-unit yields, inadequate seed manufacturing capability, and excessive seed prices, serving to to safe China’s meals safety on the very basis of the availability chain.
In healthcare, researchers developed a specialised bedside MRI machine for stroke prognosis, together with new strategies to suppress advanced movement alerts round cerebral vessel partitions. The system has slashed affirmation time for acute stroke from 40 minutes to below 10 minutes, enabling fast, correct prognosis even at primary-level hospitals. This breakthrough has basically modified the worldwide diagnostic paradigm for acute stroke. (Xinhua)