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

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A rocket carrying two satellites for the Beidou Navigation Satellite System blasts off from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre. A Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher focusing on Beidou was named in the WEF list. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 7:15pm, 27 May 2020Updated: 7:15pm, 27 May 2020

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.