Zhao Zhongxian, a researcher of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an academician of the CAS Member, and Tu Youyou, a researcher of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, jointly won the Highest Science and Technology Award in 2016.

 Each winner of the Highest Science and Technology Award has won a prize of 5 million yuan. Since its official establishment in 2000, 27 scientists have won prizes.

Zhao Zhongxian, born in 1941 in Xinmin, Liaoning, has worked in the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1964 after graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China. He is one of the founders of High-temperature superconductivity research in China, and has insisted on High-temperature superconductivity research for more than 40 years.

The history of superconductivity research is more than one hundred years, during which there were two major breakthroughs in High-temperature superconductivity, and Zhao Zhongxian and his collaborators have made important achievements. They are: the independent discovery of high-temperature superconductors in the liquid nitrogen temperature zone in 1987, and the discovery of a series of iron based high-temperature superconductors above 50K (K: Kelvin temperature, 0K is minus 273.15 ℃) after 2008, creating a 55K record.

Zhao Zhongxian won the Physics Award of the Third The World Academy of Sciences in 1987, the first prize of the the State Natural Science Award in 1989 for the "discovery of superconductivity in oxides at liquid nitrogen temperature" (ranking first), and the first prize of the the State Natural Science Award in 2013 for the "discovery of iron based high-temperature superconductors above 40K and research on some basic physical properties".

Tu Youyou, born in 1930 in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, was assigned to the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine after graduating from the Department of Pharmacy of Beijing Medical College in 1955. She gained inspiration from ancient Chinese medicine books, changing the traditional extraction process of Artemisia annua and creating a low-temperature extraction method for the effective anti malaria parts of Artemisia annua became a key breakthrough in the discovery of artemisinin.

Tu Youyou and his team were the first to isolate the antimalarial effective single ingredient "artemisinin" from the antimalarial active part of Artemisia annua. According to the new national drug regulations, artemisinin was developed into the first new drug since China implemented the new drug approval method.

The World Health Organization has recommended artemisinin based combination therapy (ACT) as the preferred treatment for malaria since the 1990s, and it has been widely used in malaria endemic areas worldwide. According to the World Malaria Report 2015 of WHO, due to the adoption of effective prevention and control measures including ACT treatment, the global incidence rate and mortality of malaria decreased by 37% and 60% respectively from 2000 to 2015, saving about 5.9 million children's lives.

Tu Youyou and her team have won many important awards at home and abroad, such as the second prize of the National Invention Award for the "new antimalarial drug artemisinin" in 1979, the Lascaux Clinical Medicine Award in 2011, and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.

It is worth mentioning that this is the first time that the Highest Science and Technology Award has been awarded to female scientists.