China's chances called good for Lasker Prize

One of the most influential scientists in the United States says China might be about to see its second winner of the Lasker Prize, a top award whose recipients often go on to become Nobel laureates.

Bruce Stillman, who sits on the 22-member prize jury, indicated in an exclusive interview that he thinks a top Beijing scientist in biomedical science will win the award in the near future.

He would not reveal a name, only that “the scientist was trained in the US and became famous in the US and then moved back to China”.

Tu Youyou, the Chinese researcher and herbologist, won the Lasker in 2011 for her discovery of the anti-malarial medication artemisinin. She received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine four years later.

The Lasker has been awarded annually since 1945 to scientists making major contributions in medical science, and Stillman has been among the jury since 1998.

According to Nature, the international science journal, 87 percent of Lasker winners have gone on to win a Nobel.

Stillman, who visited Beijing for a conference on Monday, is director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, a leading not-for-profit biomedical science research institution.

China has a number of fantastic scientists, particularly in Beijing, he said, and all of them once held major positions in US research science institutes.

He said China is likely to become an international science hub luring top scientists worldwide, like the postwar US.

In 2008, Beijing launched the 1,000 Talent Plan, recruiting established experts from overseas to help fuel the country’s advancement. The program has led to the recruitment of more than 6,000 experts in different fields, many of them scientists.