Zhejiang hosts annual conference to honor scientific innovators

Zhejiang authorities hosted an annual conference at the Zhejiang Provincial Great Hall of the People in the provincial capital of Hangzhou on June 15, presenting prizes to scientific and technological achievements made in the province in 2020.

Pan Yunhe, academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at Zhejiang University, was awarded the top honor – the Zhejiang Science and Technology Big Prize - for his outstanding contributions to the development of artificial intelligence technologies.

A total of 299 scientific and technological advancements were awarded first-, second-, and third-class prizes. The University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, which is a co-founder of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), was awarded the International Cooperation in Science and Technology Prize.

The first-prize for the Zhejiang Natural Science Award was presented to the research team at the Hangzhou-based Westlake University for their findings about the structure of the ACE2 receptor, the channel through which the novel coronavirus enter cells, which was published last February.

The Zhejiang Lab's research and promotion of technologies regarding the deep utilization of multicenter-clinical data won the Zhejiang Scientific and Technological Advancement First Prize Award. The lab's data mining efforts have enabled medical doctors to determine how susceptible patients are to catching various diseases.

Seven of the 44 first-prize winning research programs are led by enterprises rather than research institutes or universities.