Premier Li Keqiang delivers a speech on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council at the ceremony. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the ceremony, with about 3,300 people attending.
Before the ceremony, Xi and other leaders met representatives of the award winners.
DIVERSE ACHIEVEMENTS
This year's ceremony highlighted major breakthroughs in basic research. Chemist Zhou Qilin, 63, and his team won the first-place prize of the State Natural Science Award for inventing a highly effective catalyst that has been widely used by giant pharmaceutical companies in drug production.
Other research programs that were presented with the State Natural Science Award included studies on topological quantum materials, iron-based superconductors as well as the controllable growth and performance regulation of graphene.
"Many perplexing problems look like technological ones. In fact, they are not backed by solid basic research. With no clear understanding of basic science problems, you cannot get original results," said Zhou.
A batch of key technologies for industrial applications, such as the jetliner ARJ21 project, were also honored.
Developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, the ARJ21 is China's first domestically developed turbo-fan regional passenger jetliner.
Other awarded technologies applied in industries and large engineering projects included those for building large-scale tunnels and ensuring highway safety in geographically complicated and dangerous mountain areas, as well as for the automatic transmission hybrid power system for commercial vehicles.
Awards were also given to animal studies, medical breakthroughs and agricultural technologies.
Wei Fuwen, a CAS academician, and his colleagues won the second-place prize of the State Natural Science Award, for their research on giant pandas.
They focused on the evolution of the ancient species and contributed to endangered species conservation.
The team led by Sun Lingyun, a doctor at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital in east China, won the State Technological Invention Award, for developing a stem cell treatment for lupus erythematosus.
Other award winners related to diseases included studies on cross-species infection of the animal influenza virus in humans as well as the new pathogenesis and treatment of depression.
Research programs associated with safe food and stable grain output, such as technologies for accurately detecting pollutants in agricultural products and cultivating new high-yield wheat varieties, also received awards.
