Ten scientists have won the top award, of 5 million yuan ($649,350) 4.5 million yuan ($584,400) for research and 500,000 yuan ($64,900) as personal reward for their efforts, since China started giving the National Supreme Scientific and Technological Award since 1999.

Mathematician Wu Wenjun and rice scientist Yuan Longping won the 2000 National Supreme Scientific and Technological Award.

The veteran mathematician was born in 1919, and completed his PhD at the University of Strassbourg in France at the age of 30. His contribution to the development of analysissitus, a branch of mathematics, has been immense, and his researches have been the basis for many modern mathematical methods across the world.