Is China a new superpower in physics? As Tu Youyou earns Nobel Prize for medicine, pair from Anhui get Physics World’s Breakthrough of the Year award

Experts cite government’s unprecedented marshalling of resources into scientific research for number of a papers published and state-of-the-art facilities like world’s largest radio telescope and fastest supercomputer, the Tianhe 2

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Bolstered by increased government budgets, China’s physicists were already publishing more papers than any country except the United States as far back as eight years ago. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 8:01am, 17 Dec 2015Updated: 6:05pm, 8 Mar 2018

When the top award for Physics World magazine’s “2015 Breakthrough of the Year” went to Professor Pan Jianwei and Lu Chaoyang’s team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, in eastern China’s Anhui province, last week, the accolade was largely overlooked in China.

This was because the nation’s attention was gripped by the - almost simultaneous - live broadcast of the bestowing of the 2015 Noble Prize for medicine, which was given to pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou for her breakthrough in treating malaria.

Tu became the first Chinese citizen to receive the Nobel Prize for natural science, and the country was deservedly proud.

But despite being overshadowed, Pan and Lu were still thrilled to have won an unprecedented level of recognition from their peers overseas, while also getting to bring more prestige to their scientific fraternity back home.

Their team was recognised for the “fundamental importance” of their research into quantum physics, which generated “interest to all physicists”, according to the awarding body.

The magazine is run by the London-based Institute of Physics, which was established half a century ago. It now exists as a de facto scientific charity with over 50,000 member physicists worldwide.

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