Beijing Jiaotong University held an award ceremony for outstanding science and technology personnel, on May 8, in Beijing, with 258 people winning the Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award, named after one of China's foremost bridge designers.

The award ceremony of Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award is held at the Beijing Jiaotong University in Beijing on May 8.[Photo/news.cctv.com]

The event is also part of Beijing Jiaotong University's 120th anniversary celebrations. Mao was president of the university in 1949 - 52. The award itself dates back to 1991 when the Ministry of Science and Technology approved it. It has 10 categories including bridge, soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, with the most renowned being the Bridge Award.

This year it went to Zhang Naihua, of the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute and Shao Rongguang, of Southeast University for their outstanding efforts over a lifetime.

Zhang, who is 90, designed the Shanghai Maogang Bridge, the city's first, large two-tower and double-cable-plane pre-stressed concrete cable-stayed bridge, with construction work starting in 1978 and finishing in 1982. Shao, who is 81, is a pioneer in China in concrete curved-girder and skew girder bridge computing theory and engineering studies.

Ning Bin, president of the Beijing Jiaotong University, speaks at the award ceremony of Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award in Beijing on May 8.

Ning Bin, president of the Beijing Jiaotong University, told the gathering, "Mr. Mao was an important witness to the university's development and guided the university through many difficulties."

The Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Education Foundation created the award in 1991 as a memorial to Mao and his great contribution to bridge engineering. It has recognized 3,000 distinguished science and technology personnel in its 25 years.

On hand for the ceremony was the first deputy director of the Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Education Foundation, Sun Yongfu, who told the ceremony, "The Foundation has played an important role in promoting innovation in China's science and technology. Its welfare bridge-building program has helped many children in remote areas to travel the road to school in a more convenient and safer way."

Gao Xiaosong, president of the Ali Music Group, makes a speech at the award ceremony of Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award in Beijing on May 8. [Photo/provided to China Daily]

After the awards presentation, the Foundation and two departments of the Ministry of Transport announced their sponsorship of a welfare bridge project named after Mao Yisheng, with plans to build 100 bridges in the 2016-20 period in Central and West China. They have asked Gao Xiaosong, president of the Ali Music Group, to be the promoter of the project.

The first welfare bridge was completed in the village of Taiyuan near the city of Chongqing, in 2012, where it solved a problem in getting across a river for more than 700 pupils and 3,000 villagers.

A?welfare bridge structural design competition for university students?was also launched?at the same ceremony.