Four scientists won the 2019 Future Science Prize, the first Chinese non-governmental science award jointly initiated by groups of scientists and entrepreneurs. The award ceremony was held on November 17th in Beijing.

Shao Feng, Professor at the Tsinghua Institute of Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research and Deputy Director at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, was awarded the prize in life sciences for his discoveries about immune defense against bacterial pathogens.

Wang Xiaoyun, Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study of Tsinghua University, is the first female winner since the prize was established in 2016. She won the prize in mathematics and computer science for her contributions to cryptography by innovating methods to reveal the weaknesses of widely used hash functions and promote a new generation of hash function standards.

Chen Xu, Chairperson of the Tsinghua University Council; Xue Qikun, Tsinghua University Vice President and winner of the 2016 Future Science Prize, and Tsinghua Professor and Nobel Prize winner C. N. Yang attended the ceremony.

Winners of the prize are selected regardless of their nationality, as long as their achievements are original and innovative, have long-term significance or have passed the test of time. In addition, it is only awarded to scientists who have made research achievements in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.