Award-winning Scientists

Gu Chaohao (JU PENG)	Sun Jiadong (JU PENG)

Two prominent scientists, Gu Chaohao and Sun Jiadong, won the State Supreme Science and Technology Award on January 11. They each received 5 million yuan ($730,000) in prize money.

Established in 2000, the State Supreme Science and Technology Award is the highest accolade for outstanding Chinese scientists. It is awarded to no more than two recipients a year. A total of 16 scientists has been honored for their achievements.

Gu, 83, with a doctorate in physics and mathematics from Moscow State University in 1959, is primarily engaged in research in differential geometry, partial differential equations and mathematical physics, three sub-disciplines of modern mathematics. His achievements in studying partial differential equations especially have contributed greatly to China's advances in the field of supersonic aerodynamics which, for example, will make the development of spacecraft more technologically and economically efficient. Since 1992, Gu has served as a leading scientist in the key state basic research project of nonlinear science.

Gu has spent 62 years teaching. He was vice president of Fudan University and president of the University of Science and Technology of China between 1988 and 1993.

In 1980, Gu was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In honor of his academic achievements, an asteroid was named after him last October.

Sun, 80, is an expert in carrier rocket and satellite technology, and one of the founders of China's space technology. He graduated from Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy in the Soviet Union in 1958. Since 1967, he has been leading China's satellite development program. He was chief engineer for 34 satellites among the total of 100 that China has launched, including the country's first artificial satellite--Dongfanghong I launched in 1970, the first recoverable remote sensing satellite in 1975 and first geostationary communications satellite in 1984. In 2003, Sun was appointed chief designer for China's lunar probe program.

Sun was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991. He was awarded a state medal in 1999 honoring his contributions to China's development of atomic weapons, missiles and satellites.

Mobile Exec Sacked

(WANG JIANMIN)

China Mobile Ltd., the world's largest mobile carrier by subscriber number, dismissed its vice chairman Zhang Chunjiang on January 7.

The Board of Directors of New York- and Hong Kong-listed China Mobile made the decision after Zhang was removed from his post of vice president at parent China Mobile Communications Corp. on December 31, 2009, for involvement in "serious economic irregularities."

According to a statement of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, the Party's disciplinary watchdog, Zhang is under investigation.

A report from Xinhua News Agency said Zhang had allegedly falsified accounts involving 20 billion yuan ($2.93 billion) during his tenure as president of China Netcom Communications Group Corp. between May 2003 and May 2008. China Netcom Communications merged with China United Communications Group Corp. in October 2008.

The 51-year-old Zhang was vice minister of information industry from 1999-2003.