China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Award seeks to boost spirit of innovation in the young
For Chen Zihong, winning a silver medal at the DongrunYauScienceAward in 2015 was a special experience. Chen, a native of Shanghai, developed an interest in mathematics as a child. He taught himself high school mathematics when he was in junior middle school, and finished college mathematics courses when he was in high school.
In 2016, he became one of the fewChinese students to be accepted byHarvardUniversity.
Chen believes his passion for mathematics and his research made him to stand out and win a place in his dream college.
Chen won the medal for a research paper on summation of infinite series, a pure mathematics topic.
The Dongrun-Yau Science Award aims to nurture scientific interest and encourage innovation among middle school students.
The award, which features competitions to encourage students to do research, also strives to discover young science talent and help them prepare for future challenges.
The Dongrun Foundation, a private charitable foundation where Professor Shing-Tung Yau serves as the honorary president, joined the program as a sponsor in 2015.
The program, which is eight years old, instituted awards for chemistry and biology this year, and now cover four areas including mathematics and physics.
Over the years, more than 20 awardees from the program have been recommended and been accepted into the world’s top universities such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Stanford.
Speaking about his journey, Chen says: “Professor Yau gave me lots of advice on my research. He also wrote a recommendation letter to Harvard for me, which was very helpful.”
The program also encourages academic exchanges between the candidates and the scholars who are the judges, says Chen.
After he was shortlisted for the medal, Chen had to do two presentations at the event and he also got opportunities to interact with the scholars who were the program’s judges.
“It was both a great opportunity and encouragement for me to demonstratemy project to mathematicians and get their advice,” says Chen.
“The competition gave me a chance to verify my ideas. It opened my eyes and was an unforgettable experience.”
Speaking about the award at the event held in Beijing in December, Kong Dongmei, president of the Dongrun Foundation, said that the main point of the prize was not only to honor academic excellence, but more importantly to foster interest for science and foster a spirit of innovation in the younger generation.
A forum, called Innovation and the Future of Education, was also held byTsinghuaUniversity and Dongrun Foundation after the awards.
The forum offered an opportunity to young Chinese students to meet and interact with world-famous scientists such as Yau, and Nobel laureates — Chinese-American physicist Chen-Ning Franklin Yang and US economist Eric Maskin — as well as entrepreneurs and philanthropists.
The forum featured discussions on scientific issues in an effort to raise public awareness and spur innovation among the younger generation.
Giving details about the forum, Kong says that unlike other forums that focus only on science, the real focus of the forum is the young generation.
“The youth are our future. Every young person who loves science is a seed for future scientific development, and we have made it our mission to help them realize their dreams,” says Kong.
“We want to draw more attention to the education of our young generation (through the forum).”