Two Chinese scientists won China's top science award on Jan. 9 for their outstanding contributions to scientific and technological innovation, and received award certificates from Chinese President Xi Jinping at an annual ceremony held to honor distinguished scientists and research achievements.

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Xi congratulated physicist Zhao Zhongxian and pharmacologist and Nobel Laureate Tu Youyou during a special ceremony held in Beijing. Xi and other leaders, including Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, presented awards to other scientists.

Zhao is a leading scientist in superconductivity. Tu won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of artemisinin as a treatment for malaria.

Zhao, 75, received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Department of Technical Physics of the University of Science and Technology of China in 1964 with a major in low temperature physics.

He has since worked at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He studied superconductivity at the University of Cambridge (1974-1975) and at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa, U.S.A. (1984-1986) as a visiting scholar.

He is now a professor of the Insititute and Director of the National Laboratory for Superconductivity. His interest has always been the study of the low temperature physics and superconductivity.

He has published more than 60 papers mainly concerned with the study of flux flow and pinning in type Ⅱ superconductivity of amorphous alloys, and high temperature superconductors.

Tu, 86, is best known for discovering artemisinin (also known as qinghaosu) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, discoveries that saved millions of lives.

Her discovery of artemisinin and its treatment of malaria is regarded as a significant breakthrough in tropical medicine in the 20th century.

Artemisinin improved the health of peoples in tropical developing countries in South Asia, Africa and South America. For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura.

Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine and the first female citizen of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category.

She is also the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award, which is conferred on living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. She was born and educated and carried out research exclusively in China.

Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Peking University Medical School / Beijing Medical College and graduated in 1955. Tu later trained for two-and-a-half years in traditional Chinese medicine.

TagsZhao Zhongxian, Nobel Laureate Tu Youyou, Xi Jinping, 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, artemisinin, Malaria, low temperature physics, superconductivity