BEIJING -- The winners of the 2024 Future Science Prize were announced in Beijing on Friday, with four scientists receiving prizes in life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and computer science, respectively.

Deng Hongkui, Boya Chair Professor of Peking University and Leading Scientist of Changping Laboratory, received the prize in life sciences for his pioneering work on using chemical methods to reprogram somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells, thereby changing cells' fate and state.

Zhang Tao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, and Li Yadong, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University, shared the prize in physical sciences for their pioneering contributions to the development and application of Single-Atom Catalysis.

Sun Binyong, a professor in the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, Zhejiang University, was awarded the mathematics and computer science prize, for his remarkable contributions to the representation theory of Lie groups.

The Future Science Prize was initiated in 2016 by a group of scientists and entrepreneurs, focusing on original basic scientific research. There have been 39 winners recognized so far.