The Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Awarding Ceremony 2012 was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on October 29th in Beijing. Three research fellows from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS) received the awards. Professor WANG Lian-zheng, CAAS former President and Professor WAN Jian-min from the Institute of Crop Sciences (ICS) were conferred the Prize of Scientific and Technological Progress, while Professor LI Fu-guang from the Institute of Cotton Research (ICR) was conferred the Prize of Scientific and Technological Innovation.


Professor WANG Lian-zheng is a renowned soybean genetic breeder, who has successfully bred 33 high yield and good quality soybean varieties with the extension area nearly about 140 million mu (9.3 million ha).

Professor WANG Jian-min, the Director General of Institute of Crop Sciences of CAAS, is one of pilots in crop molecular breeding in China. WAN and his team discovered new plant type light insensitive regulation and wide compatibility genes in rice, which can greatly promote the use heterosis of indica/japonica hybrids. WAN also improved many new rice varieties through exploring beneficial genes which benefit a lot in the japonica rice planting areas in southern China.

Professor LI Fu-guang’s main areas are cotton tissue culture, molecular breeding, and cotton germplasm innovation. He found a new method for cotton tissue culture and differentiation traits purification, therefore greatly improve the efficiency of genetic transformation. LI bred 32 new Bt cotton varieties with the total extension areas about 100 million mu (6.7 million hectare).

Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation is currently the largest non-government award fund in China. It dedictates to advancing China’s science and technology progress and innovation. This year, 35 scientists were conferred the Prize of Scientific and Technological Progress, and meanwhile 15 scientist were conferred the Prize of Scientific and Technological innovation.