This year’s Chinese Young Women in Science Fellowship awards were given at a ceremony in Beijing on November 9. Five winners were picked from 48 candidates aged 33 to 40.

Selection of the annual award was co-organized by the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), China Association for Science and Technology, Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and L’Oréal China Co., Ltd.

The five winners of this year’s award were a psychiatry professor, conservation biology professor, the national bird flu laboratory director and two women involved in cancer research.

Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and president of the ACWF, said all Chinese women engaged in science and technology should take the winners as models and make more breakthroughs in scientific development for the country.

Li Tao

Li Tao is a professor of psychology at West China Hospital and has been engaged in research for many years, especially into hereditary schizophrenia, leading more than ten domestic and international cooperative research projects.

The molecular genetics of mental illness is viewed as a difficult topic for modern psychiatry. Results of her innovative work in this field have been backed by international research groups and greatly advanced by fundamental psychiatric research in western China.

Having no regard for altitude sickness, Li has been to Tibet many times to teach molecular genetics at Tibet University Medical Science School and help researchers there carry out research into endemic diseases.

Li Tao was given an additional award for making a special contribution to western China.

Lu Zhi

One of the most respected panda experts in the world, Lu Zhi conducted research into the ecology, social ethology, conservation biology and population molecular genetics of the giant panda from 1985 to 1995.

As a professor and supervisor of conservation biology doctorates at Peking University, Lu Zhi led a team in western China to monitor dynamic key ecosystems and biodiversity and establish a shared database.

She joined the China Office of the WWF in 1995 and was a Chinese program officer of species and nature reserves until 2000, engaged in promoting eco-tourism to establish mutual development of nature reserves and communities.

In 2002, Lu founded the Chinese office of Conservation International, aiming to solve complex biodiversity issues through exploiting science, policy and market advantages.

Lu Zhi has won many national prizes, including “one of the ten distinguished youths of China.”

In 1999, the New York Times elected Lu as one of the six young people deserving attention in the future China.

Liu Zhihua

Liu Zhihua is a researcher in a national key laboratory of oncology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences tumor hospital, and her research has been supported by funds raised especially for China’s distinguished youths.

Liu has been engaged in research into tumor molecular biology for many years. Her independent research into the gene expression pattern of esophageal cancer has obtained great achievements, which have brought her many national awards.

Chen Hualan

Chen Hualan is director of the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Harbin Veterinary Institute.

Under Chen, inactivated vaccines targeting the H5N2 and H5N1 bird flu virus strains have been developed and 4 billion applied by the beginning of 2005, helping to effectively control the disease’s spread and producing an estimated economic benefit of 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion).

Chen has attended emergency bird flu control meetings organized by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, World Organization for Animal Health, and WHO many times as the Ministry of Agriculture’s special expert.

Zeng Rong

Zeng Rong is a researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences.

She has been engaged in developing technology in protein group research and establishing a large-scale research platform.

The research team headed by Zeng has obtained information on variant proteins in liver cancers and their surrounding tissues, the findings of which could help to understand the occurrence and development of the disease.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, December 3, 2005)