Four young scientists win million-yuan prize for 2026 SDGs Award

The 2026 World Young Scientist Summit opened on Oct 24 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, marking the eighth edition of the summit since 2019. As an important platform for China's people-to-people science and technology diplomacy, this year's gathering brought together representatives from international scientific and technological organizations, renowned universities and research institutes at home and abroad, and nearly 800 young scientists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from more than 60 countries and regions.

The highly anticipated 2026 Sustainable Development Young Scientist Award was also unveiled at the event.

The winners of this year's Young Scientist SDGs Award are Cesar de la Fuente, presidential associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania; Wang Haotian, distinguished professor at Tongji University; Liu Jue, deputy director and researcher at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, Peking University; and Nicola Segata, professor at the University of Trento in Italy.

They were honored for outstanding contributions in fields including artificial intelligence, the intersection of engineering and biology, electrochemistry and catalysis in energy and environment, healthcare big data research and application, the human microbiome, computational metagenomics and computational biology. The four young scientists from China and abroad took the stage to receive honorary medals from the award presenters, with each laureate receiving a prize of 1 million yuan.

The Young Scientist SDGs Award was jointly established by the World Young Scientist Federation and the Wenzhou World Young Scientists Growth Foundation to honor young science and technology leaders from around the world who have made outstanding contributions to solving humanity's development challenges, with a sustained focus on the most pressing issues of sustainable human development.

Since its establishment in 2023, the award has seen steady growth in applications, with a total of 347 valid applications received this year, up 70.1 percent year-on-year, and a more international applicant pool compared to previous years. An increasing number of universities and research institutions are using the award as an important channel to recommend their own young talent. In addition to the cash prize, each year's winners receive support for promoting and applying their research results, local talent benefits, and opportunities to be recommended for participation in international platforms such as the United Nations.