Tian cherished the opportunity, and studied diligently. She earned her doctorate one year faster than usual, wining the university's new investigator award in 2004.

She also won the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine's Asia and Oceania Distinguished Young Investigator Award in 2002, and Radiological Society of North America's International Young Academic Award in 2003.

In 2005, she went to the US for further studies successively at Harvard University and at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Experience in the US broadened her horizon in nuclear medicine researches, says Tian.

In Japan, most of her study and work focused on the clinical application of PET in disease diagnosis, but in the US, her research expanded to new drug development and stem-cell tracking.

She accepted an offer from Zhejiang University and started working as a researcher there in 2011 under the 1,000 Talents Plan, a Chinese government-initiated global-talent program. She is satisfied with the support she receives.

The central government has attached great importance in nuclear-medicine development in the 13th Five-Year Plan, and Tian believes that is a sign that research in the field in China will thrive.

"Nuclear weapons kill people but nuclear medicine saves lives. People should not get scared at hearing the word 'nuclear'," says Tian.