The 2025 awardees of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation have been announced. A total of 54 scientists from various fields across China have been conferred the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Science and Technology Progress and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Science and Technology Innovation.

Academician Zhu Yongguan of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (RCEES, CAS) has been awarded the Prize for Science and Technology Progress – Eco-Environmental Protection Technology Award.

Academician Zhu Yongguan has long been engaged in research on environmental soil science. He has achieved systematic and innovative findings in the interactions between soil, plants and microorganisms, as well as the mechanisms of pollutant migration and transformation, and their control and remediation. His work has provided an important theoretical basis for soil quality assessment, protection, and contaminated soil remediation in China.

As the first corresponding author, he has received two Second Class Prizes of the State Natural Science Award, the TWAS Science Award, and the Liebig Prize of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS)—making him the first Asian scientist to win this honor. He is also the sole Chinese member of the Technical Committee on Integrated Monitoring of Antimicrobial Resistance of four United Nations agencies.

The Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation was established in 1994 with donations from Mr. Ho Sin Hang, Mr. Leung Kau Kui, Mr. Ho Tim, and Mr. Li Guowei, patriotic financial industrialists from Hong Kong.

The Foundation aims to reward Chinese scientists and technicians who have made outstanding achievements, promote the development of science and technology in China, advocate a favorable social atmosphere of respecting knowledge, respecting talents, and upholding science, encourage scientists and technicians to scale new heights in science and technology, and accelerate the modernization of the country.

Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences

February 3, 2026