The 2024 Qiu Shi Science & Technologies Foundation Award Ceremony was held on November 5, 2024 at the University of Hong Kong.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award honors Professor Kan Yuet Wai, a renowned geneticist and hematologist whose influential work and leadership at the University of California, San Francisco have left a lasting mark on medical science.

The Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award was presented to two remarkable scientists— Professor Chen Zhijian (James) of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Professor Chen Xuemei of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University — for their contributions to biomedical and plant research, respectively.

In 2024, the Qiu Shi Foundation focused on Life Sciences & Medicine as the discipline for this year’s awards. To ensure a rigorous selection process, the Foundation convened an independent awards committee composed of — and led by — eminent scientists with deep expertise in the field. Their leadership upholds the impartiality, integrity, and academic excellence that define the Qiu Shi Awards.

Since its founding in 1994, the Foundation has recognized outstanding contributions across disciplines, including Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, and Materials Science, in addition to this year’s focus on Life Science & Medicine.

The Lifetime Achievement Award: Professor Kan Yuet Wai

The Lifetime Achievement Award in Science and Technologies is a prestigious honor recognizing individuals who have made extraordinary and enduring contributions to the advancement of science and technological innovation. This award celebrates a distinguished career marked by groundbreaking discoveries, innovative research, and impactful applications that have significantly shaped their respective fields and benefited society at large.

Professor Kan Yuet-Wai

Professor Kan Yuet Wai received this exceptional award for his work on prenatal diagnosis of blood diseases. Professor Kan has made significant contributions to understanding the molecular defects underlying sickle cell anemia and thalassemia, two common inherited genetic abnormalities affecting red blood cells. His pioneering research has enabled the detection of these disorders by directly analyzing DNA obtained from fetal cell in amniotic fluid. Professor Kan also studied thalassemia mutations with the aim of developing gene probes to identify the various variants.

Born in 1936 in Hong Kong, Professor Kan’s journey began at the University of Hong Kong, where he graduated with distinction in 1958, majoring in Social Medicine, Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, and Gynecology. In 1980, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by the same institution. During the 1960s, Professor Kan built a distinguished career through research, teaching, and clinical roles across North America. In 1970, he joined Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, before moving to the University of California, San Francisco in 1972.  While in that post he was also appointed Chief of the Hematology Service at the San Francisco General Hospital.

Among Professor Kan’s many honors is his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1981, a rare distinction for scientists outside the United Kingdom. He was the first Chinese scholar and the first graduate of the University of Hong Kong to receive this prestigious recognition. That same year, he was awarded honorary doctorates from both the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy (Doctor of Medicine) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Doctor of Science). Over the years, he has also been invited to deliver lectures and has received accolades from leading institutions around the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard Medical School, McGill, Cornell, the University of California, and the International and American Societies of Hematology.

Professor Kan is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the Western Society for Clinical Research, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Western Association of Physicians. In 1986, he was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors bestowed upon scientists and engineers in America.

In 2024, the Qiu Shi Science & Technologies Foundation honored Professor Kan Yuet Wai with its Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his pioneering contributions to genetics and hematology. This rare distinction has been bestowed only three times in the Foundation’s 30-year history, previously awarded to Professor Zhou Guangzhao (2012), a leading theoretical physicist and former President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Yang Zhenning (2019), Nobel Laureate in Physics and one of China’s most influential scientists.

The Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award

The Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award recognizes individuals of Chinese ethnicity who have achieved international academic excellence and have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of science and technology. Professor James Chen of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Professor Chen Xuemei of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University were honored with this award this year. Both embody the spirit of excellence celebrated by the Qiu Shi Foundation with their rigorous training, institutional leadership, and groundbreaking research.

Professor James Chen received the award for his groundbreaking research in inflammation, contributing to the fight against infectious diseases.

Professor Zhijian “James” Chen is a leading molecular biologist whose discoveries have reshaped how we understand the body’s immune responses. He serves as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he also directs the Inflammation Research Center and holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.

Before joining UT Southwestern in 1997, Professor Chen was a senior scientist at ProScript Inc., where he helped develop VELCADE, a proteasome inhibitor now widely used to treat multiple myeloma. His research at UT Southwestern has revealed how ubiquitination regulates key cellular pathways, uncovered the Mitochondrial Antiviral Signaling (MAVS) protein that connects mitochondria to immune defense, and identified cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) — a DNA sensor that launched a new area of study in innate immunity.

In recognition of his exceptional contributions to biomedical science, Professor Chen received the 2024 Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award. His achievements have also earned him many of the world’s top scientific honors, including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2019), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2023), the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2024), and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2025). He is a member of both the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, recognizing his lasting contributions to biomedical science.

Professor Xuemei Chen is recognized for her trailblazing work in RNA biology

Professor Xuemei Chen is an internationally recognized leader in plant molecular biology, celebrated for her pioneering work in small RNA biology. Born in Harbin, China, she graduated from Peking University in 1988 with a B.S. in plant physiology and biochemistry. She then earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cornell University in 1995, followed by post-doctoral training at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Starting her career at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University in 1999, Professor Chen joined University of California, Riverside in 2005, where she held the Furuta Chair Professorship and became a distinguished professor. In 2023 she returned to Peking University, her alma mater, with her appointment as Endowed Chair Professor and Dean at the School of Life Sciences.

Professor Chen’s research uncovered key steps in the biogenesis and degradation of microRNAs in plants. These “small RNAs” help control how plants grow and develop. One of her lab’s findings was the discovery of a chemical “tag” that is added to small RNAs by an enzyme called HEN1. This step protects the RNAs from damage and ensures they can do their job properly. Later, scientists found that animals use a similar process, showing that her discovery revealed something fundamental about biology beyond the plant world.

Professor Chen has earned wide-ranging recognition for her groundbreaking work. In 2006, she received the Charles Albert Shull Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, and in 2011 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Between 2012 and 2018, she served as an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute–Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (HHMI-GBMF) Plant Biology program. In 2013, she was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors bestowed upon scientists in the United States. Most recently, in 2023, she was awarded the Martin Gibbs Medal by the American Society of Plant Biologists in recognition of her pioneering contributions to RNA biology and plant science. In 2024, Professor Chen’s exceptional scientific achievements were further recognized with the Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award, celebrating her enduring impact on biological research and her leadership in advancing science in China and beyond.