On May 14, UNESCO revealed the laureates of the “2024 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards”, recognizing their pioneering research in life and environmental sciences. Nieng Yan, a Chinese scientist, is one of the five laureates. The awards ceremony will be held on May 28.

UNESCO released a bulletin declaring that the laureates of this 26th edition have been selected from among 350 candidates worldwide by an independent international jury chaired by Professor Brigitte L. Kieffer, Research Director at the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm) Research Institute and member of the French Academy of Sciences. The outstanding achievements of the laureates indicated that the scientific community now needs women more than ever before, for example to meet major public health challenges, including cancer, malaria, polio, obesity, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.

According to the introduction of UNESCO, Nieng Yan, a university professor in School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, a founding president of Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation, and a director of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, found the atomic structure of multiple membrane proteins that mediate the traffic of ions and sugars across the cell membrane, revealing principles of cross-membrane transport. Her excellent research advanced relevant studies of many diseases, such as epilepsy and arrhythmia, and guided the treatment of pain syndrome. As a leading authority in her field, Professor Yan inspires female scientists around the world and strongly advocates gender equality in research and science education.

The public data revealed that Nieng Yan was born in November 1977 in Zhangqiu, Shandong Province, China, and received B.S. from Tsinghua University and Tsinghua University from Princeton University. In 2007, Nieng Yan, who is only 30 years old, serves as a professor and doctoral supervisor at Tsinghua University, becoming the “youngest professor at Tsinghua University”. On November 22, 2023, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering announced the list of newly elected academicians for the year 2023, and Nieng Yan was selected as a CAS academician.

“Women in Science International Awards” was jointly created by UNESCO and L'Oréal in 1998, and annually awards 5 female scientists who have made eminent contributions for the progression of science from different regions of the world, with the aim to recognize their outstanding achievements and support their scientific research. The international influence of this award is gradually prominent, and several awarded female scientists have won the Nobel Prize. So far, 8 Chinese female scientists have received this award, and China is one of the countries with the most award-winning female scientists in the past decade.

The other 4 laureates in this year are Rose Leke (former head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon), Alicia Kowaltowski (Professor of Biochemistry, University of São Paulo, Brazil), Nada Jabado (Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Human Genetics, McGill University, Canada), and Geneviève Almouzni (Director of Research from The National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France).