Professor Yan Ning the youngest student in the past of Chinese Academy of Sciences

chiny24.com 1 year ago

On November 22, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced a list of 59 fresh members, including prof. Yan Ning. At only 45 years old, he is the youngest associate in the past of the Academy. Her candidacy had already been considered twice before, but it was not until this year that she joined this distinguished group.

Yan studied at the Faculty of medicine and Life Sciences of the renowned Tsinghua University from 1999 to 2000. She then continued her education, earning a master's degree in Molecular Biology at Princeton University (2000-2004). After receiving her doctorate in science, she worked at Princeton as a lecturer until 2007.

In 2007, she returned to China and worked at the Home Faculty of medicine and Life Sciences of Tsinghua University as a associate of the teaching staff. 5 years later, in 2012, she was appointed prof. of this university.

Her investigation focused on the structure and mechanics of cell membrane transporter proteins.

In 2017, Yan Ning decided to leave Tsinghua and join the Princeton University Molecular Biology Department squad at the invitation of prof. Shirley M. Tilghman. This step attracted large interest in China and sparked national discussion both in the technological community and in society. It was considered that Yan Ning's decision could have been caused by difficulties in achieving its technological and investigation objectives, which it faced in the Chinese academic system. prof. Yan openly criticized the National Natural discipline Foundation of China for its reluctance to support high-risk investigation (in terms of uncertainty about achieving the expected/founded results of investigation data). Yan herself denied these speculations, stating that “change of environment can bring fresh challenges and inspiration to technological breakthroughs”.

For achievements in investigation Yan Ning won many awards. She is the winner of the 2015 Youth investigation Award Protein Society, the 2015 global Beverley & Raymond Sackler Award in Physical Biology, the 2015 Alexandra M Award. Cruickshank at the GRC conference on membrane transport proteins in 2016, the FAOBMB Award for Excellence in investigation in 2018 and the Weizmann Women & discipline Award in 2019. In April 2019, Yan was elected as a abroad associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In April 2021, Yan Ning was elected a abroad associate of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

On November 1, 2022, speaking during the Shenzhen Global Innovation Forum of Talents, Yan announced her resignation from her post on Princeton and returning to China to become Dean of the co-created Shenzhen Medical Academy of investigation and Translation. In December 2022 she returned to China, where she took a fresh position. On March 22, 2023, Yan was appointed manager of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. In July 2023, Yan was elected a abroad associate of the European Molecular investigation Organisation.

And in November, she became the youngest associate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in its history.

Why did prof. Yan Ning return to China? It was frequently attributed to its decisions to political motivation, which is to change attitudes in the US to researchers and researchers of Chinese origin, who were very frequently suspected of illegal activities in favour of the People's Republic of China. In this case, however, it seems that the return to China has been decided by fresh conditions, a change in this field which was to be the origin of prof. Yan Ning's work in the United States. The attitude of Chinese authorities has changed, and consequently academic decision-making bodies to support and finance risky research, investigation activities whose results are uncertain, which may not give expected and assumed results at a given time. China is investing increasingly in basic research, whose results have small chance of commercialisation in the short term. any (most?) of these researches cannot be commercialised at all, but they are fundamental to the expansion of human knowledge, allowing answers to many questions. Answers that give emergence to further questions...