Young Women Scholars Shortlisted for China’s Thousand Talents Plan

Scholars Liu Mingzhen and Yang Shu, both born in 1990, have been selected for the Thousand Talents Plan, China's scheme to sponsor promising scientists in their research and development endeavors, Women of China reported.

According to the organizers, the two female scientists will be granted their own research facilities over the next three years. They will each receive a living allowance of 500,000 yuan and a scientific research fund of 1-3 million yuan.

Liu finished her bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from the U.K.'s Bristol University, University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, respectively, from 2011 to 2015.

Currently, she is a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China located in Sichuan Province's Chengdu.

Together with the Photovoltaic and Optoelectronic Device Group, Liu researched into new-energy solar cells in 2012. She also made "a series of breakthroughs in perovskites, an emerging class of semiconductors providing a low-cost alternative to silicon-based photovoltaic panels," the report noted.

In Sept. 2013, she made a remarkable feat when Nature published a thesis she co-authored. The then 23-year-old Liu became the youngest Chinese scientist to be featured in the said journal.

Meanwhile, Yang Shu is a graduate of microelectronics from Fudan University. She finished her doctorate degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where she is currently a visiting professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Yang, who has released over 40 theses in international journals, is now working on the next gen GaN semiconductor devices.

Since 2008, China has announced 12 batches of scientists selected for the Thousand Talents Plan. The scheme aims to "lure overseas top talents who can make breakthroughs in key technologies or enhance China's high-tech industries and emerging disciplines over the next five to 10 years."