Seven renowned scholars with the Peking University Tuesday received awards totaling two million yuan (US$250,000) for outstanding academic dissertations published in leading science magazines around the world.
The awards came from the Dongsheng Group, a pharmaceutical company in northwestern China's Xi'an City. The move was to encourage more innovation and creation in academic fields, said Guo Jiaxue, chairman of Dongsheng, who also signed a contract with the university on Tuesday offering a total of 10 million yuan (US$1.2million) of awards from 2003 to 2011.
"We encourage substantial scientific research and will offer strong support to the university in the drive to upgrade its position in international academic circle," said Guo.
Professors with the university, including Zhang Chuanmao, Wang Shiqiang, and Deng Xingwang, received the awards Tuesday.
Every year, fewer than 20 academic essays published in leading international magazines have Chinese scientists as first authors, which is far less than the level in Western nations. From 2000 to 2002, scientists from Harvard University in the United States published 270 articles in Nature only.
Dongsheng is one of China's major medical companies with an annual output value of over 3 billion yuan (US$360 million).
(People’s Daily May 21, 2003)
