Chinese high-energy physicists may have been dealt a blow when their recent proposal to build a next-generation particle collider more advanced than the Large Hadron Collider was turned aside by the government.

Yet they have received recognition for research in other fields, with the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment winning a State Natural Science Award.

The experiment involved more than 100 scientists from China, the United States and Russia, among others, in an underground facility located close to the Daya Bay Reactor in Guangdong province, lasting for two months from late 2011 to early 2012.