(Yicai Global) Sept. 29 – The youngest person honored with this year's Xplorer Prize for young scientists was 30-year-old Huang Qianqian, a doctoral tutor at Peking University's Institute of Microelectronics.

Huang, along with the other 49 winners of the Tencent Holdings-backed awards, will receive CNY3 million (USD440,000) over the next five years. The full list of recipients were named on Sept. 25.

Huang was admitted to the Institute of Microelectronics of the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science at Beijing's prestigious Peking University at age 17. She earned a PhD in science at 26 and became a PhD tutor there at 28.

Jointly set up in 2018 by Tencent Chairman Pony Ma and renowned Chinese scientists Rao Yi and Yang Zhenning, the Xplorer Prize focuses on basic sciences and advanced technologies, giving a helping hand to scientists aged under 45 who work full-time in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.

Most of this year's winners come from the fields of mathematical physics, life sciences, astronomy and geosciences, new chemical materials, electronic information, energy saving and environmental protection, advanced manufacturing, transport constructions and emerging interdisciplinary.

The award accepted applications from science practitioners in Hong Kong and Macau for the first time, where the number of candidates was 59, with three from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and City University of Hong Kong, respectively, ultimately prevailing.

Over 800 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering took part in the selection process this year, and 13 winners of the Nobel Prize, Turing Award and Fields Medal, together with more than 100 academicians from developed nations, joined in.

Editor: Ben Armour