(The press conference of the Future Science Prize, in Beijing on Saturday.)

Chinese Physicist Pan Jianwei, the chief scientist for the world’s first quantum satellite in China, Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), received the Future Science Prize – Physical Science Prize for 2017, the country's first and most prestigious non-governmental science award, in Beijing on Saturday.

The prize aims to reward outstanding original research that was finished in China and has global impact. The prize is not limited to Chinese, and is privately funded by 12 eminent Chinese entrepreneurs who want more public involvement in the country’s development of science.

Shi Yigong, a Chinese biophysicist in the field of protein X-ray crystallography and dean of the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University, was awarded Life Science Prize for his research in processing pre-mRNA into mature mRNA.

Xu Chenyang, a mathematics professor at Peking University, received the Mathematics and Computer Science Prize. Each winner also received one million US dollars.

The prize was launched in 2016 by entrepreneurs aiming to utilize cutting-edge computer science technology, such as AI and big data, in the business sector, and investors who understand that scientific development is the foundation of a country’s long-term development and prosperity. Donors include Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, China’s top search engine; Ma Huateng, the chairman of Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings; and Xu Xiaoping, founder of ZhenFund and one of China’s most celebrated angel investors.

Touted as China’s “Noble,” as both are privately funded, the Future Science Prize aims to be globally influential in ten years. The award is committed to increase public engagement in scientific development, as well as connect businesses and science.

Fifteen prominent scholars worldwide form the panel of judges, including Wang Xiaodong, director of the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States; Li Kai, the Paul M. Wythes and Marcia R. Wythes Professor in Computer Science at Princeton University; and Luo Liqun, professor of Biology at Stanford University.

In July, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology issued a guideline that calls for more scientific prizes in the country and encourages the use of private capital in the science sector.