Two excellent Chinese scientists, who were awarded the Medals of the Republic in 2019, are undoubtedly the role models of the times.

One of them is Yuan Longping, known as the “Father of Hybrid Rice”. In 1974, he successfully developed a special type of rice which can produce a 20% higher yield, putting China in the global lead in rice production. For the achievement, he won the State Supreme Science and Technology Award. The crop is now grown in more than 30 countries and regions. By 2003, half of China’s rice production area was planted with hybrid rice. Yuan set world records in hybrid rice yields in 1999, 2005, 2011 and 2017, providing a solution to worldwide hunger.

The other is Tu Youyou. She is the first Chinese scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of artemisinin (青蒿素), a group of drugs used to treat malaria. She and her workmates studied ancient Chinese medicine books and different traditional treatments. Having done nearly 200 experiments, they finally succeeded in getting artemisinin. This drug became the standard treatment for malaria on the World Health Organization list of essential medicines. Thanks to Tu’s contribution, more than 240 million people in Africa have benefited, and over 1.5 million lives have been saved since 2000.