The Chongqing Science and Technology Awards Conference kicked off on October 16. (Photo/Su Si)

Chongqing - Chongqing’s Science and Technology Awards Conference on October 16 highlighted advances in health research, advanced manufacturing and basic science, as well as closer links between research and industry.

The municipal government holds the conference to honor individuals and organizations for contributions to scientific discovery, technological invention and scientific and technological progress. This year’s event announced 151 municipal science and technology awards for 2025.

Wu Yuzhang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Army Medical University’s College of Basic Medicine, and Wang Shilong, a professor at Chongqing University, received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Science and Technology.

Wu mainly studies how the human immune system recognizes and responds to threats such as viruses and tumors, and how this ability can be used to prevent and treat disease. 

His team discovered new immune cell populations and revealed the mechanisms governing how these cells function and are regulated, providing new insights for vaccine development and immunotherapy.

Wang has long researched precision gear machining technologies and equipment, as well as intelligent manufacturing. 

His team worked with companies to develop large computer numerically controlled (CNC) gear hobbing machines and precision CNC gear grinding machines, overcoming technical challenges in high-precision gear machining and breaking foreign technological monopolies in the relevant high-end gear-making machine tools.

These achievements have provided domestically developed equipment for gear manufacturing in sectors such as automotive production and wind power, bringing research results into industrial production.

The two recipients’ long-term research reflects Chongqing's scientific expertise in life and health sciences and advanced manufacturing. 

The award-winning projects also reflect progress in the city’s basic research: of the 32 projects receiving natural science awards, 28 were assessed as internationally advanced or world-leading. 

The “Chongqing Biota and the Early Evolution of Jawed Vertebrates” project discovered the Chongqing Lagerstätte, filling a longstanding gap in the early evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates.

Links between scientific research and industrial development are also growing closer. Among the technological invention and science and technology progress awards, 50 winning projects were in digital and intelligent technologies. 

Of these, 37, accounting for 74%, directly served three industrial sectors: intelligent connected new energy vehicles; intelligent equipment and intelligent manufacturing; and software and information services.

According to the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology, the city had more than 10,000 high-tech enterprises by the end of 2025; the value of technology contracts reached 114.148 billion yuan (17.07 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 17.17% year on year.