Chinese geo-spatial information expert Li Deren and condensed matter physicist Xue Qikun were awarded China's top sci-tech award for 2023 on June 24.

The awards were presented at a meeting conflating the national sci-tech conference, the national science and technology award conference, and the general assemblies of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering in Beijing.

Since the reform of the science and technology award system in 1999, a total of 37 scientists have received the honor.

Li, born in 1939, is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences as well as a corresponding academician at the International Academy of Astronautics and honorary member of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Li has advanced China's capabilities in surveying and remote sensing for Earth observation. He is celebrated for his expert knowledge of the core technologies of high-precision global positioning and mapping via satellite remote sensing.

Xue, born in 1963, is a renowned physicist whose team made the first experimental observation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect. They also discovered interface-enhanced high-temperature superconductivity in the heterostructure system, which opened up a new direction of research in the field of high-temperature superconductivity.

Xue is also a recipient of the Buckley Prize awarded by the American Physical Society.

The meeting was attended by about 3,000 people and honored 250 projects and 12 sci-tech experts, with two scientists winning the top award, 49 projects the State Natural Science Award, 62 projects the State Technological Invention Award, 139 projects the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award, and 10 foreign experts the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

According to an official at National Office for Science & Technology Awards, the 2023 awards show three characteristics: continuous innovation in basic research, young and middle-aged science and technology talents becoming an important force of China's science and technology innovation, and expanded international science and technology cooperation.