Han Ximin

1824295095@qq.com

THREE professors from Shenzhen were among the 49 young scientists who won the Sixth Xplorer Prize, according to an announcement from the New Cornerstone Science Foundation yesterday.

The recipients from Shenzhen include Lu Haizhou and Tan Bin from the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), as well as Yan Jianbin from the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Lu joined SUSTech in 2015 and specializes in quantum mechanics and quantum transport theory. He received a grant from the National Distinguished Young Scientists Fund in 2019 and won the first prize in the Shenzhen Natural Science Award in 2020.

Tan is a tenured professor and associate dean of the School of Science at SUSTech. He has published over 60 research papers in areas including chiral chemistry, asymmetric multi-component reactions, radical chemistry, and cooperative catalysis.

Yan, a researcher at the Agricultural Genomics Institute, has authored more than 30 papers in journals such as Nature, Nature Plants, Plant Cell, and Molecular Plant. His research focuses on plant hormones and the regulation of plant secondary metabolism, which produces metabolites with broad biological activities. These metabolites play crucial roles in medicine, agriculture, food, and ecology.

The Xplorer Prize, an unofficial, nonprofit, and scientist-led award, was established in 2018 with an initial donation of 1 billion yuan (US$141 million) from the Tencent Foundation. It aims to encourage and support young scientists aged 45 and younger in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and other key scientific and technological fields. Each year, 50 outstanding scientists are selected for the award, with each recipient receiving a total of 3 million yuan over five years.

The New Cornerstone Science Foundation, founded by Tencent, was registered in August 2022 in Shenzhen. The Xplorer Prize is one of the foundation’s major initiatives.

This year, the award saw a significant increase in female recipients, with seven women among the winners, compared to just three last year.

Yan Ning, a member of the Xplorer Prize management committee and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, stated that this year’s award extended additional support to female researchers by raising the age limit for female applicants from 45 to 48 years.

This year’s award also expanded its geographical reach, with recipients hailing from 28 different institutions across 13 cities, including Hong Kong.

Over the past six years, the award has provided funding to a total of 297 young scientists, contributing to the creation of a sustained funding mechanism for researchers.