Principal Investigator Miguel A. Esteban from GIBH Awarded “Guangdong Innovation Prize”

On November 1^st, the Guangdong Provincial Committee of Communist Party of China and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province decided to confer the “Guangdong Exceptional Contribution Prize” and “Guangdong Innovation Prize” on 12 people. Principal Investigator (PI) Miguel A. Esteban, from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (referred to as GIBH hereinafter), was awarded the “Guangdong Innovation Prize”. 

Miguel A. Esteban, currently a GIBH PI, is the first non-Chinese chief scientist in the “973” programme (2011), national high-end foreign scientist, and specially appointed principal investigator of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has received more than 10 awards of national, provincial and ministerial levels, including the Chinese Government Friendship Award 2019, first prize of the Guangdong Province Science and Technology Award 2019 (first person-in-charge), the “Chinese Stem Cell Research Innovation Award” 2018 of the Chinese Society of Stem Cell, the Guangzhou Honorary Citizen Award 2018, the “Star of Innovation Talent” 2018 of the Development Zone of Huangpu District of Guangzhou, the “Distinguished Scientific and Technological Achievement Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (outstanding contributor)” 2017, and the “Excellent High-end Foreign Specialist of Guangdong Province”. In the November of 2020, he was granted the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card of the People’s Republic of China. 

Miguel A. Esteban loves China, truly rooted in Guangdong and whole-heartedly dedicated to work. Passionate about research and education, he excels in team work and collaboration in research while indifferent to fame and fortune; he works as a model of virtues in teaching and cares about his students, deeply welcomed and loved by them. He has been working in China full-time since 2008, in charge of and participate in more than 20 research programmes of national, provincial and ministerial levels, publishing more than 80 papers in international top journals such as Nature Methods, Cell Stem Cell, and Nature Cell Biology, with citation of more than 10, 000 times, and applying for 2 PCT international patents and 12 Chinese invention patents (8 granted). 

The Guangdong Exceptional Contribution Prize and Guangdong Innovation Prize are the highest-level talent prizes set by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of Communist Party of China and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province. It is understood that the Guangdong Innovation Prize is awarded biennially. No more than 10 individuals or teams will be awarded for each session. This Prize is mainly conferred on innovative talents or teams who have made major breakthroughs in Guangdong’s scientific and technological innovation, theoretical innovation, cultural innovation, system innovation, management innovation and other domains, and have made important contributions to the economic development and social progress of Guangdong province and the Development Driven by Innovation Initiative.