The 2020 award presentation ceremony of the Hong Kong-based Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (HLHL) was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on November 3. The event was attended by Chinese Vice Premier LIU He, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of the China Central Committee, Mr. SHEN Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the PRC, and Mr. WAN Gang, Vice Chairman of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC). At the ceremony Professor ZHU Rong of USTB was formally awarded the Science and Technology Progress Award. Among the 52 winners, Prof. ZHONG Nanshan and Prof. FAN Jinshi won the Science and Technology Achievement Award, the highest award bestowed by the foundation.

Professor ZHU has been engaged in the research of energy conservation and emissions reduction technology for steelmaking, and is a major academic leader in the field. Prof. ZHU’s group has made great breakthroughs into key technologies of electric arc furnace steelmaking and designed a new generation of green and efficient electric arc furnace steelmaking technologies, which have been used in hundreds of electric arc furnaces both in China and abroad, resulting in great economic and social benefits. In addition, he pioneered the utilization of CO2 in the steelmaking process and achieved the source control of dust byproducts during steelmaking, which made a significant contribution to the control of atmospheric haze. It is the first time for the iron and steel industry to effectively utilize CO2, and the technology was named as part of the “Top 10 technical news of world steel industry in 2018”.

Set up in 1994 by Hong Kong financiers Ho Sin Hang, Leung Kau-Kui, Ho Tim, and Lee Quo-Wei to recognize achievements made by Chinese scientists, the HLHL foundation has been the most influential non-governmental prize in science and technology in China. It aims to reward Chinese scientific and technological personnel who have made outstanding achievements and significant progress in their respective fields, so as to promote social trends which esteem knowledge, talent and science, as well as to encourage scientists to explore new frontiers in their work, thus accelerating the process of national modernization. About 50 awards are handed out each year.

The Science and Technology Progress Award of the HLHL Foundation is presented for achievements made in the fields of Mathematical Mechanics, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Meteorology, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Agronomy, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, Paleontology, Archaeology, Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Electronic Information Technology, Transportation Technology, Metallurgical Material Technology, Chemical Engineering Technology, Resources Environmental Protection Technology, Engineering Construction Technology, and others. Four other USTB scientists including Academician WEI Shoukun, Academician KE Jun, Academician CHEN Guoliang and Academician XIE Jianxin, have previously received the Ho Leung Ho Lee Science and Technology Progress Award.