AI News Feed
Market watch
LG UltraFine Evo 32U990A-S Hits Record-Low $1,099 on Amazon, TechRadar ReportsNewegg Labor Day Deal: 32GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-3200 Kit Nearly Half Price at $179.99 with CodeGalaxy Z Fold 8 inner screen corners reported with excessive giveHuawei unveils Mate XT 2 tri-fold with privacy-screen edition as Apple prepares folding iPhoneWall Street Analysts Recommend Nvidia, Uber and Marvell for Long-Term GrowthLenovo, AMD and Huawei Put Local Large-Model AI at Center of New Devices
LG UltraFine Evo 32U990A-S Hits Record-Low $1,099 on Amazon, TechRadar ReportsNewegg Labor Day Deal: 32GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-3200 Kit Nearly Half Price at $179.99 with CodeGalaxy Z Fold 8 inner screen corners reported with excessive giveHuawei unveils Mate XT 2 tri-fold with privacy-screen edition as Apple prepares folding iPhoneWall Street Analysts Recommend Nvidia, Uber and Marvell for Long-Term GrowthLenovo, AMD and Huawei Put Local Large-Model AI at Center of New Devices
Research

Science Exploration Award 2026 Winners Announced; First Post-95 and Record Female Scientists Included

The 2026 Science Exploration Award has honored 50 young scientists, including the first post-95 winner and a record 10 female laureates.

AI News Feed · 2026-08-25 16:11

The list features the award's first "post-95s" winner, Zhou Tiankuang, a researcher at Beijing Institute of Technology's Frontier Science and Technology Interdisciplinary Institute, specializing in intelligent optoelectronic computing. The number of female winners reached 10 for the first time in the award's eight-year history, including three young scientists (men aged 35 or below and women aged 38 or below).

Among the winners is Joshua Norbert Zahl, a chair professor at Nankai University, who collaborated with Chinese mathematician Wang Hong, a recent Fields Medalist, to solve the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture, a problem that had troubled mathematicians for nearly a century. Zahl received the Clay Research Award in April this year.

The winners come from a broader range of institutions than before. Peking University Cancer Hospital, Ruijin Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, ShanghaiTech University, Shandong Agricultural University, Southwest Petroleum University, Zhengzhou University, and cities such as Zhengzhou in Henan and Tai'an in Shandong have produced their first winners. This indicates that basic research capacity is expanding beyond traditional research centers.

The Science Exploration Award was established in 2018 and is funded and operated by the New Cornerstone Science Foundation. It is a public welfare award that focuses on basic science and frontier technology, targeting young scientists and technicians working full-time in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. Unlike most awards that reward past achievements, this award emphasizes future exploration, providing winners with a total of 3 million yuan over five years to use freely. The award supports up to 50 people each year across 10 fields. Since its first presentation in 2019 to 2025, it has funded 347 young scientists. Past winners include Tang Jie and Zhu Jun, professors known for large model research, and Lu Cewu, a professor in embodied intelligence.