Chinese science awards to emulate Nobel Prize

Robin Li Yanhong, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, delivers a speech at the Future Forum Annual Conference 2016 in Beijing, Jan 17, 2016. [Photo/IC]

A new science award with a million-dollar prize was announced on Sunday to honor China's top scientists with a view to creating China's own version of Nobel Prize.

The Future Science Awards were initiated by a group of elite Chinese scientists and business leaders, including Shi Yigong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and winner of Gregori Aminoff Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Rao Yi, president of life sciences of Peking University, Robin Li Yanhong, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, and Yang Yuanqing, CEO of Lenovo.

The awards were announced at the Future Forum Annual Conference 2016 held in Beijing on Sunday. This was the second session of the Conference, whose theme was "Bridging Disciplines: Human Cognition for A New Century".

The new awards comprise two categories – Life Science Award and Materials Science Award, and the prize of $1 million for each will be given to winners from 2017.

The new honor is regarded by some as the Chinese version of Nobel Prize, because as with the awards established by Swedish scientist Nobel, the Future Science Awards are also founded by private organizations, instead of government.

Yang Zhenning, the 94-year-old Chinese-American Nobel Prize winner, said at the conference that "there is not yet a top science award set up by Chinese nongovernmental organizations," and "this award will spark huge influence in China."

Robin Li Yanhong said the Future Science Awards will bring creative talents from different fields together and help them communicate and breed new ideas.