China’s top science prize goes to nuclear pioneer and aircraft designer

Name: Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says
Uploaded: 2021-11-03T13:17:04.000Z
Duration: 2 min 6 s
Description: Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says

Wang Dazhong, who built the world’s hottest nuclear reactor, is one of two winners of a prize of US$1.25 million each – more than a Nobel laureate

Fellow winner Gu Songfen helped drive China’s most ambitious aviation programmes that produced stealth fighters, AI drones and hypersonic vehicles

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Nuclear scientist Wang Dazhong (left) won the prize along with aircraft designer Gu Songfen. Photo: CCTV

Stephen Chen

Published: 9:17pm, 3 Nov 2021Updated: 11:18pm, 3 Nov 2021

The Chinese government has given the nation’s most prestigious science award to two recipients who, when the nation was still poor, weak and far behind the West, insisted on leading the world through home-grown innovation.

Aircraft designer Gu Songfen and nuclear scientist Wang Dazhong each received the State Pre-eminent Science and Technology Award in Beijing on Wednesday, and with it a prize of 8 million yuan (US$1.25 million) each, slightly more than this year’s Nobel Prize winners will receive.

Wang, an 86-year-old professor at Tsinghua University, designed and built the world’s hottest nuclear reactor, which could generate electricity with unprecedented efficiency.

Professor Gu, 91, has found belated fame as the designer of China’s first military aircraft in the 1950s. It was not until recently that the authorities revealed his critical role in kick-starting some of the country’s most ambitious aviation programmes, which have produced stealth fighters, AI-powered drones, large passenger jets and hypersonic vehicles.

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Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says

More than 260 research teams this year have received an award for their contribution to China’s rise as a science and technology power. They included recipients from the United States, Australia, Japan, France and Germany.

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