International scientific prize for Chinese researcher highlights efforts to lure scientific talent back home

Name: Chinese scientists conduct ‘crucial’ expedition in the Arctic Ocean
Uploaded: 2024-02-29T01:00:13.000Z
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Description: Chinese scientists conduct ‘crucial’ expedition in the Arctic Ocean

Hao Jihua, a geochemistry professor at elite Chinese university after studies in US and France, was awarded FW Clarke Award

Hao’s research areas, which include nutrient cycling in early Earth, origin of life and habitability of extraterrestrial oceans, are priorities for China

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Hao Jihua has received the 2024 FW Clarke Award, the Geochemical Society has announced. Hao studies the origin of life on Earth and the chemical signals of habitable planets in the universe. Photo: Weibo/安徽网

Dannie Peng

Published: 9:00am, 29 Feb 2024

Hao Jihua, a geochemistry professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, has been awarded a prestigious international prize, with his rapid academic rise highlighting China’s efforts to lure bright talents back home.

Earlier this month Hao, who studies the origin of life on Earth and the chemical signals of habitable planets in the universe, became the first winner of the Geochemical Society’s FW Clarke Award to be affiliated with a Chinese research institution.

The prize is awarded by the society – an international organisation based in Washington – each year to an early-career scientist for their outstanding contribution to geochemistry or cosmochemistry.

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Chinese scientists conduct ‘crucial’ expedition in the Arctic Ocean

After spending four years in tenuous postdoctoral employment abroad, Hao returned to China and joined the department of geochemistry and planetary sciences USTC, one of the leading institutes in mainland China, in 2021.

Over the past three years he has been promoted to professor, received substantial funding and his academic work is now internationally recognised and honoured.

Although an isolated case, his career to some extent reflects China’s efforts to lure back and support outstanding overseas talent in a bid to become more self reliant in science and tech

Hao started his undergraduate studies at USTC in Hefei in Anhui province in 2008 before heading to the United States in 2012 where he received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 2016.