Tan Kah Kee Science Awards 2010

Award Ceremony for the Tan Kah Kee Science Awards 2010

The award ceremony for the Tan Kah Kee Science Awards 2010 was held on June 9, 2010 at the 15th General Assembly of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the 10th General Assembly of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). State Councilor Liu Yandong presented the certificates and medals to the winners along with CAS President Lu Yongxiang and CAE President Xu Kuangdi.

The winners of the Tan Kah Kee Science Awards 2010 are as follows:

1. Bai Yilong, Professor of the Institute of Mechanics, CAS, award in mathematics and physics for the work on deformation localization, damage and catastrophic failure in solid materials.
2. Yang Xueming, Professor of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, award in chemistry for the work on “State-to-state chemical reaction dynamics”.
3. Pei Gang, Professor of Tongji University, award in life sciences for the work on “Novel physiological and pathological roles of β-arrestins”.
4. Li Desheng, Professor of the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, PetroChina, award in earth sciences for the work on “Tectonics of Chinese petroliferous basins”.
5. Wu liangyong, Professor of Tsinghua University, award in technological sciences for the work on “Sciences of human settlements”.

Officials from different governmental agencies and institutions concerned such as the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Bank of China (BOC), China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and National Office for Science and Technology Awards attended the ceremony.? Attending the ceremony were also relatives of the awardees.

The Tan Kah Kee Science Awards (formerly known as Tan Kah Kee Awards) was named after Mr. Tan Kah Kee (1874-1961), a world-renowned patriotic expatriate. The awards cover six fields: mathematics and physics, chemistry, life sciences, earth sciences, information sciences and technological sciences. The awards are conferred every two years and only one award is given in each field every time with the goal to honor and encourage excellent Chinese scientists who have made outstanding achievements in science and technology in an effort to promote the development of science and technology in China and to facilitate the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The awards have gained worldwide recognition and extensive impacts in the scientific and technological community, having played an important role in the promotion and encouragement of the development of science and technology and innovation in China. Some outstanding scientists who are awardees of the State Science and Technology Top Awards have also received this award, including Wu Wenjun, Wang Xuan, Huang Kun, Liu Dongsheng, Wu Mengchao, Ye Duzheng and Li Zhensheng.

The Tan Kah Kee Award in Mathematics and Physics 2010
Awardee: Bai Yilong

Bai Yilong, male, born in Xiangyun, Yunnan on December 22, 1940. Undergraduate in the department of mechanics, the University of Science and Technology of China（USTC）, 1958-1963 and postgraduate in the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（CAS）, 1963-1966. Since 1966, he has been in the Institute of Mechanics, CAS. He was elected as Member of CAS in 1991 and Member of the European Academy of Sciences in 2002. Now professor of the Institute of Mechanics, CAS, he serves as the chairman of the academic committee of the state key laboratory of nonlinear mechanics (LNM), General Assembly member of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM), etc.

He was involved in the projects on the mould strength in metal forming and the synthesis of diamond with explosives as well as the propagation of blast waves. For thermo-plastic shear localization, he established the criteria and laws of its occurrence, evolution and quasi-steady structure (shear band width). Aiming to the mechanism of micro-damage evolution, he created sub-microsecond stress wave technique, established the framework of statistical microdamage mechanics and revealed the ideas, like damage evolution induced catastrophe, etc. He has published one hundred peer-reviewed papers, and two English monographs. He is the recipient of the National Prize of Natural Sciences (second class), the HLHL advancement prize, Zhou Pei Yuan award in mechanics and John Rinehart Award.

Award winning project description on deformation localization, damage, and catastrophic failure in solid materials

Shear deformation localization serves as a precursor to catastrophic failure of materials. Different from the conventional empirical descriptions, the recipient successfully established the governing equations of the thermo-plastic shear deformations. Based on the proposed model, he obtained the criterion to forecast thermo-plastic shear instability and the relevant formula to predict the characteristic width of shear bands. Aiming to understand the mechanism of material failure induced by micro-damage evolution, the recipient originally developed a theoretical framework of statistical mesomechanics by deriving the evolution equations for the number density of micro-damage and finding their basic solutions. He theoretically revealed and experimentally proved some universal properties in the nonlinear behavior of damages, such as evolution induced catastrophic failure, sample specificity and critical sensitivity, etc. This work provides a new approach to predict catastrophic failure of non-homogeneous brittle materials. Above all, the recipient made “seminal contributions to the theories of shear-band formation and damage in materials”.

The Tan Kah Kee Award in Chemistry 2010
Awardee: Yang Xueming

Yang Xueming was born on Oct. 11, 1962 in Deqing，Zhejiang Province of China. He received his Ph. D. in chemistry from University of California at Santa Barbara in 1991. After postdoctoral experiences in Princeton University and University of California at Berkeley from 1991 to 1995, he became an associate research fellow in the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences in Taipei at the end of 1995, and was promoted to a full research fellow with tenure in 2000. In 2001, he made a move to Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, and became a research fellow and director of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics. His main research interests are in the area of experimental chemical dynamics and spectroscopy in the gas phase and at the interfaces. He developed a new generation of crossed molecular beam instruments and applied them to study important problems in chemical reaction dynamics. He published about 200 scientific papers, including 7 in Science and 1 in Nature. In recent years, he has received many prestigious research awards, for example, the HEHL Foundation Award in chemistry, the National Natural Science Award and the Yangtze River Scholar Achievement Award.

Award winning project description on state-to-state chemical reaction dynamics

During the last decade or so, Dr. Yang has used advanced molecular beam instruments developed in his own laboratory to study the state-to-state dynamics of a number of important elementary chemical reactions. He and his colleagues have investigated the F+H2 reaction and developed an accurate physical picture of reaction resonances in this important system in a series of combined experimental and theoretical works. In addition, he has also studied the state-to-state non-adiabatic dynamics of the F+D2 reaction and observed the breakdown of Born-Oppenheimer approximation in this reaction. These research works have made significant impacts in deepening our understanding of chemical reaction resonances and chemical non-adiabaticity at the quantum state-to-state level.

The Tan Kah Kee Award in Life Sciences 2010
Awardee: Pei Gang

Pei Gang, was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province on December 11, 1953. He graduated from Shenyang College of Pharmacy with a B. S. in 1981 and a M. S. in 1984，gained the doctoral degree of Biochemistry & Biophysics in University of North Carolina in USA in 1991，after receiving his Ph.D. degree, he continued his postdoctoral research in Duke University. He took the Yong Research Group Leader position, co-sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences and German Max-Plank Society in 1995. He became member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999, member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in 2001, the President of Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in May 2000, the President of Tongji University. Prof. Pei maintains academic appointments: President of Chinese Society of Cell Biology, Vice President of Consortium for Globalization of Chinese Medicine, President of China Creative Studies Institute and Chief Editor of Cell Research, etc. He used to be the President of Asian-Pacific Organization for Cell Biology.?

Award winning project description: Novel physiological and pathological roles of β-arrestins

The classical paradigm of β-arrestin function is to bind to the activated G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and to mediate their desensitization and internalization. Identification of numerous β-arrestin binding partners leads to the view that β-arrestins tune the diverse pathways by scaffolding different complexes. The studies by Pei’s group demonstrate that by forming various signal complexes with p38 MAPK, Mdm2, IκBα, Traf6, p300, Akt, Src, IR and etc, β-arrestins link the activated receptors to distinct sets of accessory and effecter proteins and determine the specificity, efficiency, and capacity of signals. These studies implicate a direct physiological relevance of β-arrestins in the pathophysiology of numerous diseases, including inflammation, autoimmuno-disorders, cancer, neurodegeneration, and diabetes, presenting β-arrestin-containing signalsomes as novel potential therapeutic targets for these diseases.

The Tan Kah Kee Award in Earth Sciences 2010
Awardee: Li Desheng

Professor Li Desheng , petroleum geologist, was born in Shanghai, China, in October 1922. He graduated in the Department of Geology, National Central University, 1945. He worked as a petroleum geologist for the Yumen, Taiwan, Yanchang, Daqing, Sichuan, Shengli, Dagang and Renqiu oil/gas fields from 1945~1977. He is professor and chief geologist of Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, PetroChina in Beijing since 1978. He has been a Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) since 1991, and has been a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) since 2001.

For his contribution to the discovery of super-giant Daqing oilfield, he was awarded the 1st Class China National Natural Science Award, in 1982. For his research result to many successful exploration and development projects in the Songliao and Bohai Gulf Basin, he was awarded two National Science and Technology Progress Special Awards, in 1985. The American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG) bestowed upon Professor Li Desheng the “Distinguished Achievement Award”. He has serviced as an AAPG Honorary Member since 1994.

His research areas: Petroleum Geology, focus has been on study of basin wide exploration, development and petroleum geological theory of the Chinese petroliferous basins; on the study of tectonic types of oil and gas basins in China, the lacustrine origin source beds, the stratigraphic correlation and fracture reservoir characterization, on the theory of composite magastructural oil and gas belts in blocked-faulting traps and buried-hill traps.
Prof. Li Desheng has published more than 140 papers in Chinese and foreign geoscience journals, 9 volumes of petroleum geology books (2 of these in English). His major publication on oil and gas basins structural geology of China are: (1) Li Desheng. Tectonic Types of Oil and Gas Basins in China. 1991, Petroleum Industry Press (in English). 195 p; (2) Li Desheng et.al. The Structural Geology of Oil and Gas Basin in China. 2002, Petroleum Industry Press (in Chinese). 675p. He has supervised more than 25 postgraduate students, including master, doctor and postdoctoral candidates.

Award winning project description: Tectonics of Chinese petroliferous basins

Professor Li Desheng has made the significant achievements on oil and gas basins structural geology of China. He identified that the hydrocarbon bearing basins in China consist of three basic types. (1) Eastern China Tension Basins, (2) Central China transition basins, (3) Western China Compression Basins. In the research of Bohai Gulf Oil and Gas Basin, Prof. Li build the “Bohai mantle rise” concept, and use this concept to comprehensively discuss the sedimentary history and tectonic framework and distribution pattern of oil and gas field in this basin. He applied plate tectonic theory to the analysis of the property of Marine and Continental facies polycyclic superimposed petroliferous basins, and explained the characteristic of palaeogeotectonic, palaeogeography and multi-petroleum system types. Li Desheng’s academic works were based on massive first-hand data, which came from oil and gas fields practices and formed theories. His academic results have successfully guided the new venture petroleum exploration and production in China.

The Tan Kah Kee Award in Technological Sciences 2010
Awardee: Wu Liangyong

Wu Liangyong, City Planner, Architect, and Educator, Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, Member of China Democratic League. He was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, on May 7, 1922. He graduated in 1944 as a Bachelor of Architecture from the Department of Architecture, National Central University, Chongqing. He worked with Professor Liang Sicheng in founding the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University after 1946. He was enrolled in Department of Architecture and Urban Design of Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1948, and received Master of Architecture in 1949. He presided over the editing of a variety of urban planning design reports. Since 1951, he successively held the positions of Professor and Director of the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University. He also had collaboration with Beijing Agricultural University in founding Landscape major, as well as founding Architecture and Urban Research Institute and taking the position of Director. He was the Deputy Group Leader of Scientific Planning Architectural Urban Planning Section of Ministry of Works, Vice President of the International Union of Architects, Vice President of the World Society for the Science of Human Settlements, Honorary Senior Member of the American Institute of Architects, as well as the Vice President of the Architectural Society of China, Vice President of the Chinese Society for Urban Studies, the President of the Urban Planning Society of China.? He has been engaged in teaching, researching and practicing in the fields of urban planning and designing, architecture design, landscape architecture planning and design. Pedagogic theory with practice, advocate the combination of Architecture and Urban Planning, he made significant contribution in the city planning for Beijing, Guilin, Sanya and Shenzhen, especially the old town urban planning design. His book, General Theory of Architecture, is a comprehensive study on multi-disciplinary of architecture, sociology, economic, etc.

Award winning project description: Sciences of human settlements