Chinese make up record proportion in WEF list of young scientists at forefront of cutting-edge technology
- Five academics from some of China's most prestigious universities and one based in the US are among six Chinese scientists named in this year’s list
Five academics from some of China's most prestigious universities and one based in the US are among six Chinese scientists named in this year’s World Economic Forum list of 25 scientists under 40 at the forefront of scientific discovery.
Each year the WEF compiles a list of young scientists, and this year’s line up has the highest proportion of Chinese since the project began in 2014. At that time there were no China-based scholars and only two Chinese from American institutes, out of a total of 30.
This year’s list comes amid the global Covid-19 pandemic when “the need for science to test, predict and explain how different phenomena affect human and ecological outcomes is greater than ever,” WEF said in a statement on Tuesday.
Among the young Chinese selected are three health care researchers. Gao Wei from the California Institute of Technology has developed skin-interfaced, wearable biosensors, while Wu Dan from eastern China's Zhejiang University is working on advancing MRI techniques to improve tumour and stroke detection, as well as monitor fetal brain development.
The third scientist in the health care field is Peking University's Yi Li, who does research into social-communicative impairments in children with autism to develop more precise screening and diagnosis.
The remaining young Chinese scientists are cybersecurity expert Shi Ling from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Ying Xu, a Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher focusing on China's GPS rival Beidou Navigation Satellite System, and Meng Ke, a Tsinghua University assistant professor studying the socio-economic causes of population ageing and declining population rates.
In the face of a trade war and escalating technology rivalry with the United States, Beijing is accelerating its plans to build more state-backed laboratories as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's call for self-reliance and innovation.
Among this year's WEF young scientists list are eight based in Europe, seven in Asia, six working in the Americas, two in South Africa and a further two in the Middle East.
Fifteen – more than half – of the 25-member cohort are women.