Wang Yayu, a professor with the Department of Physics of Tsinghua University, won the Xplorer Prize, newly established to support the development of young scientists on the Chinese mainland, on September 20. In total, 50 scientists were awarded the prize for the first time.
Born in 1975, Wang received his bachelor's degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1998, followed by a PhD in physics from Princeton University.
In 2006, he won the Changjiang Scholar award given by the Ministry of Education. He has taught and researched in the fields of strongly correlated electronic materials.
The Xplorer Prize was jointly initiated by Tencent Chairman and CEO Pony Ma and 14 scientists in 2018 to support full-time Chinese mainland-based scientists under the age of 45 in areas of fundamental science and cutting-edge technologies.
Each winner will be awarded 3 million yuan ($423,000) over the next five years by the Tencent Foundation.