Zhao Zhongxian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, won the 2023 Future Science Award for his research and development of high-temperature superconducting technology, which has attracted much attention
Titanium Media learned that on August 16, the winners of the 2023 Future Science Award were announced, and a total of eight scholars were awarded, with a single prize of about 7.25 million yuan.
- Chai Jijie, Chair Professor of Plant Immunology at the School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, and Zhou Jianmin, a researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, received the "Life Science Award" for their pioneering work in discovering disease-resistant bodies and elucidating their structure and function in resistance to plant diseases and pests.
- Zhao Zhongxian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Academic Committee of the National Superconductivity Laboratory, and Chen Xianhui, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, received the "Material Science Award" in recognition of their breakthrough discovery of high-temperature superconducting materials and their pioneering contributions to the systematic improvement of transition temperature;
- He Kaiming, research scientist of Facebook AI Research Institute (FAIR), Sun Jian (deceased), former chief scientist of Megvii, Ren Shaoqing, chief expert of NIO's autonomous driving research and development, and Zhang Xiangyu, head of basic scientific research of Megvii Research Institute, won the "Mathematics and Computer Science Award" for their basic contributions to artificial intelligence by proposing deep residual learning ResNet.
It is reported that the Future Science Prize was established in 2016 and is a folk science award jointly initiated by scientists and entrepreneurs. The award focuses on original basic scientific research, rewards scientists (regardless of nationality) who have made outstanding scientific achievements in Chinese mainland (mainland), Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and drives more private funds to promote basic science research in China with innovative models. The awards are nominated by directional invitation, and there are currently three major awards: "Life Science Award", "Material Science Award" and "Mathematics and Computer Science Award", with a single prize of about 7.25 million yuan (equivalent to 1 million US dollars).
From 2016 to 2022, a total of 27 winners were selected for the Future Science Prize, and a total of 35 scholars have won the Future Science Prize so far including 2023.
Specifically, Chai Jijie and Zhou Jianmin, two scholars of the "Life Science Award", have established the composition, structure and function of disease-resistant bodies activated by immune receptors through 19 years of cooperation and efforts. They found that disease-resistant bodies are multi-component complexes formed by immune receptor proteins after recognizing pathogen effectors, and found that this complex protects plants from infection by forming calcium ion channels that cause plant immune responses, including programmed cell death. This discovery will lead to better methods of plant disease control, which is extremely important for global food security.
Dr. Chai Jijie, 57 years old this year, is currently the Chair Professor of Plant Immunology and doctoral supervisor at the School of Life Sciences, Westlake University. He received a bachelor's degree from Dalian Institute of Light Industry in 1987, a master's degree from the Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology in 1994, and a doctorate degree from the Institute of Materia Medica, Peking Union Medical College in 1997. From 1997 to 1999 and from 1999 to 2004, he was engaged in postdoctoral research at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Princeton University, and was a researcher and senior researcher at the Beijing Institute of Life Sciences from 2004 to 2009 and 2009-2010, a professor at the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University from 2009 to 2023, and a "Humboldt Professor" at the Max Planck Institute of Plant Breeding in Germany from 2017 to 2023. Join Westlake University full-time in 2023.
Chai Jijie's laboratory has long been engaged in the structure and function of receptor kinases (RLK) and NOD-like receptor proteins (NLR) mediated by plant mediated innate immune responses. Previous laboratory studies have shown that plant NLR recognizes pathogen effector proteins and forms different disease-resistant bodies, thereby initiating the immune response of plants, including hypersensitivity reactions (programmed cell death) to effectively inhibit the infection and pathogenesis of pathogenic bacteria. CNL-like disease-resistant bodies form inducible calcium channels on cell membranes to initiate plant disease resistance. TNL-resistant disease-resistant bodies as NAD+ hydrolases and ADPR transferases produce a variety of nucleosides as second messengers, which activate another class of CNL-resistant disease-resistant bodies through EDS1-PAD4/SAG101 to cause the immune response of plants. The current research focus of the laboratory is to use genetics, omics, biochemistry, molecular biology and bioinformatics to study the signaling process of cellular immunity or programmed death after the activation of calcium signal in plants.
Dr. Jianmin Zhou is currently a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his bachelor's degree from the Department of Biology of Sichuan University in 1984, his master's degree from the Institute of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1987, and his Ph.D. from the Department of Horticulture, Purdue University in 1994.
Like animals, plants recognize pathogens through immune receptors and activate innate immune responses. One of the main interests of Zhou's lab is the molecular mechanism by which plants recognize different pathogenic microorganisms and activate immune responses. In addition, pathogenic microorganisms can secrete disease-causing proteins into host cells, allowing them to suppress the plant's immune system, disrupt cell activity, and eventually cause disease. Another major interest of Zhou's lab is to elucidate the biochemical function of these disease-causing proteins within host cells.
During the exchange after the meeting, Zhou Jianmin believed that Chai Jijie's support work has accelerated research in the field of plant immunity by 5-10 years. In this regard, Chai Jijie said that he and Zhou Jianmin have a win-win relationship with the achievements of this project in their work, and they recognize each other's research results.
"I think this honor does not belong to us personally, but to the result of many years of working together by our multiple teams." Chai Jijie said in the live video link.
The two academicians of the "Material Science Award" are experts in the field of superconductivity.
Zhao Zhongxian, 82 years old this year, born in Xinmin, Liaoning, is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an academician of the International Academy of Ceramics, a member of the Chen Jiageng International Society, and the director of the Academic Committee of the National Superconductivity Laboratory. Adjunct professor at the National University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, Peking University and other universities. Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Zhao Zhongxian's main research direction is to explore high critical temperature superconductors and related mechanisms. After graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1964, he has been engaged in the research of low temperature and superconductivity. Since 1976, he has been engaged in the exploration of higher critical parameters, especially the exploration of superconductors with high critical temperatures. In early 1987, Zhao Zhongxian and his collaborators independently discovered the Ba-Y-Cu-O superconductor with a critical temperature of 92.8 K. In 1987, he won the TWAS Physics Prize of the Third World Academy of Sciences; In 1988, he won the first Chen Jiageng Material Science Award. The research group won the first prize of National Natural Science Award in 1990. In 2009, he won the "Qiushi" Outstanding Scientific and Technological Achievement Group Award for research based on iron-based superconductors and seven other researchers; In 2013, he won the first prize of National Natural Science Award; In 2014, he won the Ho Leung Ho Lee Science and Technology Achievement Award; He received the B. T. Matthias Award in 2015.
Zhao Zhongxian's current research topics and prospects are: exploring new superconductors; study of the mechanisms of copper oxides and iron-based superconductors; Carry out high-pressure synthesis and physical properties research under high pressure; Magnetic and transport properties studies.
Chen Xianhui, born in 1963 in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Physics, School of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, and director of the Key Laboratory of Physics of Strongly Coupled Quantum Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Previously, he received his Ph.D. degree in condensed matter physics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1992 and stayed on to work. After that, he worked as a Humboldt Foundation scholar at the Karlsruhe Research Center in Germany and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Physics in Stuttgart, as a visiting professor at the Hokuriku Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, and the Texas Superconductivity Research Center in the United States. In 1998, he was appointed as a professor in the Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China. In addition, he also serves as a director of the Chinese Physical Society, the deputy director of the Low Temperature Physics Professional Committee of the Chinese Physical Society, and a member of the Academic Committee of the State Key Laboratory of Superconductivity.
For a long time, Chen Xianhui has been adhering to the exploration of new unconventional superconductors and the research of superconductivity and strongly correlated physics, and the new superconductors discovered cover copper oxide superconductors, fullerene superconductors, iron-based superconductors and organic superconductors. Breakthrough results have been achieved in the research of iron-based superconductors: superconductivity of more than 40 kelvis is achieved in iron-based superconductors (under normal pressure) for the first time, phase diagrams and evidence of competition and coexistence between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity are given, and the universal behavior of large isotope effect and linear temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility is found. Abnormal behavior caused by multi-degree-of-freedom interaction was found in strongly correlated electronic systems; Based on the fact that black phosphorus has a two-dimensional structure similar to graphite and has an energy gap, Chen Xianhui proposed the idea of carrying out research on it. Subsequently, he used high temperature and high pressure technology to grow high-quality black phosphorus single crystals, and cooperated with Zhang Yuanbo and other groups of Fudan University to successfully realize field-effect transistors in two-dimensional black phosphorus thin-layer crystals.
During the on-site dialogue, Zhao Zhongxian, one of the winners of the "Material Science Award" and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the award rewards not only the winners, but also the support and encouragement of collaborators and generations of research teams. "The field of superconductivity research is full of challenges and requires generations of young people to persistently study. I would like to be a paving stone for China's superconductivity cause. ”
After the meeting, Zhao Zhongxian told Titanium Media App that for teaching students, his principle is "the master leads the door, and the practice is in the individual", hoping to give full play to everyone's strengths and focus on cultivating the abilities of young people.
"I think the key to whether a person can grow up is the responsibility he bears. He grows in the responsibilities he bears. So in a sense, giving him responsibility is the best training for him. So when doing iron-based superconductivity, I have an evaluation of post-80s students and young researchers, they are passionate, willing to endure hardships, able to fight, and trustworthy. Zhao Zhongxian said.
For the current hotly debated LK-99 research results, Academician Zhao Zhongxian and Academician Chen Xianhui both said that their work has nothing to do with superconductivity. Zhao Zhongxian hopes that the exploration of scientific research must be cautious and not in a hurry. Moreover, Zhao Zhongxian told Titanium Media App that the current field of superconducting applications is gradually increasing, and he believes that superconducting applications will achieve great progress in the next decade.
Four winners of the Future Science Prize "Mathematics and Computer Science", namely He Kaiming, Sun Jian, Ren Shaoqing and Zhang Xiangyu, were awarded for their deep residual learning techniques, which they completed at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing between 2012 and 2016.
Deep residual learning technology ResNet is considered to be a milestone breakthrough in the field of computer vision recognition. At the time, Sun Jian and He Kaiming were researchers at Microsoft Research Asia, and Zhang Xiangyu from Xi'an Jiaotong University and Shaoqing Ren from the University of Science and Technology of China were interns on their team. This technology has led to the development of deep neural networks and led to several breakthrough outcomes – including AlphaGo, AlphaFold and ChatGPT.
Ho Kaiming, 39, received a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University (2007) and a doctorate from Chinese University of Hong Kong (2011); After graduating with a Ph.D., he joined Facebook AI Research (FAIR), a US technology company, to continue his research on computer vision.
Jian Sun, bachelor (1997) and Ph.D. (2003) from Xi'an Jiaotong University, has been the principal researcher of Microsoft Research Asia since 2003, and joined Megvii Technology as Chief Scientist and Dean of Megvii Research Institute in July 2016. However, Sun Jian died in the early morning of June 14, 2022 due to a sudden illness at the age of 45.
Ren Shaoqing graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China and Microsoft Research Asia (2016), and was the R&D director of Momenta (Beijing Chu Speed Technology Co., Ltd.), a Chinese autonomous driving company, and then worked at NIO. Ren Shaoqing proposed Faster RCNN, an efficient framework for object detection, and ResNet, an image recognition algorithm, which won the Best Paper Award from CVPR, a top conference in the field of computer vision, in 2016.
Xiangyu Zhang, B.A. from Xi'an Jiaotong University (2012) and Ph.D. from Xi'an Jiaotong University and Microsoft Research Asia (2017), is currently the head of the Basic Model Group of Megvii Research Institute. Moreover, in 2022, Zhang Xiangyu was selected as one of the first members of KLCII's Technical Committee. At present, Dr. Zhang Xiangyu's main research interests include deep convolutional network design, clipping and acceleration of depth models, etc.
As the youngest winner of the Future Science Prize since its inception in 2016, Zhang Xiangyu said in a video link: "I will always remember the teachings of my mentor Sun Jian, always adhere to a simple and essential principle, continue to innovate, and expand the boundaries of cognition." He Kaiming, who also won the award, also mentioned in the video link, "Thank you for the recognition and recognition of young people by the award, and hope to inspire more young people to devote themselves to the field of scientific research." ”
It is reported that the award ceremony of the 2023 Future Science Prize will be held around October this year.
(This article was first published on Titanium Media App, author | Lin Zhijia)