A cohort of 48 young scientists were awarded on Monday with this year's Xplorer Prize, a science award initiated by the Tencent Foundation and a number of renowned scientists to encourage talents to concentrate on fundamental science and research disruptive technologies.

As the prize honors scientists working full-time in China, including those working in Hong Kong and Macau, Joseph Ryan Michalski, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, became the first foreign awardee of the prize for his studies on Mars.

The move, according to Mao Shude, professor of astronomy at Tsinghua University and one of the initiators of the prize, is an epitome of China's optimized ecology on scientific research. "It fully demonstrated the continuous improvement of the country's fundamental research as well as its increasing attraction for outstanding scientists from across the world," he said.

This year's award also witnessed female awardees in the field of mathematical physics and transportation architecture for the first time, among which are Peng Xinhua, professor of physics at the University of Science and Technology of China; Zhou Ying, professor of civil engineering of Tongji University; and Zou Li, professor of ship engineering at Dalian University of Technology.

The Xplorer Prize was jointly initiated by Tencent Chairman and CEO Pony Ma and a group of renowned scientists in 2019 to support full-time science professionals under the age of 45. Each prize winner will be awarded a total of 3 million yuan ($418,000) within five years by the Tencent Foundation which, it claimed, will have no attached strings.

As of June 2023, a total of 248 young scientists in mathematics and physics, chemistry and new materials, astronomy and geoscience, advanced manufacturing and other frontier science and technology areas have been awarded the prize. The research achievements of seven awardees made it into the top ten of China's scientific advances.

With the prize, Zhou Huanping, a former Xplorer winner and a professor at Peking University, pointed out that she got more confidence to shift her research focus from "short-term and easy projects" to those with "higher uncertainties but greater significance".

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn