THE RAY WU PRIZE

The Ray Wu Prize for Excellence in Life Sciences is established to inspire Asia’smost promising young Ph.D. students to become future leaders in lifesciences.  Professor Ray Wu (1928-2008) was a world-renownedbiologist who, in the 1970s, developed the first method for DNA sequencing andpioneered the recombinant DNA technology. In the later part of his career, he devoted to genetic engineering of rice. Professor Wu was a life-longadvocate for developing life science research in Asia.  In 1982,Professor Wu initiated the first large-scale exchange program in biology whichbrought over 400 students from China to obtain Ph.D. degrees in theUS.  The program opened the door for thousands of more Chinesestudents to study abroad and marked the beginning of Sino-US exchanges in lifescience research. This prize is dedicated in honor of Professor Ray Wu’sseminal contributions in training China’s new generation of biologists. Sixty prizes have been awarded so far.

The Ray Wu Prize is awarded each year to graduate students for excellence in lifescience research. The process for selection of recipients is outlined in thefollowing sections.

The Prize: The prize consists of USD$3000, a medal, a certificate, and a citation by the Ray Wu Memorial Fund (RWMF).Financial assistance for travel is available to the recipients for careeradvancement purposes. RWMF will serve as a liaison for the awardees who wish toseek consultation from established investigators as they develop theirscientific careers.

Ten or more awards may be made each year. Candidates from all geographical areasare encouraged to apply and special considerations will be given tosemifinalists from each underrepresented major geographical area.

Criteria: The Ray Wu Prize recognizesexcellence in life science research by a graduate student for innovation,independent thinking, and dedication.

Qualifications: A candidate must be agraduate student who is pursuing a degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in aninstitution located in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore. Thecandidate must have advanced to candidacy in the PhD program by the deadline of application.

Nomination: A candidate may benominated by a faculty member of the institution from which the candidate plansto receive the PhD. The faculty member shall be a PhD mentor and is activelyconducting life science research.

Materialsto be submitted:A candidate who wishes to be considered for this year's Ray Wu Prize mustsubmit the following materials by the deadline for application:

1.A completed application form. (Please download the application form http://www.raywumemorialfund.org/application_process.phpavailablebelow. Fill out in English or Chinese)

 Download ApplicationForm

The completed application form must be signed by the Dean of the School in whichthe candidate is currently enrolled to certify all materials as true andauthentic.

2.A two page essay (English or Chinese) by the candidate in which the motivationof pursuing a PhD degree, personal interest in the current field of ownresearch, and outlook for future career development should be addressed.

3.A progress report of the candidate's current PhD research project (limited to 3pages, not counting references).

4.A current transcript of courses taken in the PhD program.

5.A list of publications

6.Copies of two representative published materials.

7.Awards or honors received.

The candidate must collate items 1-7 in a single PDF file (limited to 10MB) in theright order. The name of the PDF file must be Familyname_Givenname_RWP2015.pdf(e.g. Chen_Xiaohua_RWP2015.pdf).

Submit the PDF file by clicking the button below:

Online Submission

Inaddition, the candidate must request a letter of recommendation from thenominating faculty member (letter1), and two additional letters ofrecommendation from other faculty members who know the candidate wellprofessionally (letter2 and letter3). The letter must be in an envelope sealedby each faculty member with candidate’s name on the back of the envelope, sentto:

Dr.Yan Wu

Rom 539, #1 Research Building

School of Life Sciences

Peking University

Beijing, China 100871.

or sent directly by the faculty members via email to:

raywuprize@pku.edu.cn

The name of the letters must be Familyname_Givenname_RWP2015_letter1(2 or 3).pdf(e.g. Chen_Xiaohua_RWP2015_letter1.pdf).

Important Dates:

March31, 2015, deadline for applications to be received.

April30, 2015, notification of receipt of completed applications (by email or othermeans).

August31, 2015, completion of review.

Awardceremony, to be announced.

Website of Ray Wu Memorial Fund:

The Ray Wu Prize committee

Chair:

XiaodongWang (王晓东)   Director, National Institute of BiologicalSciences, Beijing

Members:

Xuemei Chen（陈雪梅）

Professor,University of California, Riverside

HHMI-GBMF(Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation)Investigator

Sheng Ding (丁胜)        

Professor,University of California, San Francisco

Jun-Lin Guan (管俊林)    

Professor and Chairman, University of Cincinnati

NancyY.Ip (叶玉如)      

Head& Chair Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Chao-Wen Wang (王昭雯)  

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Taiwan

Ming Luo (罗明)          

Professor,Georgia State University

Hong-WeiGuo (郭红卫）

Professor and Associate Dean, Peking University

Xiao-Hong Sun (孙晓红)  

Lewand Myra Ward Chair and Member, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Wanjin Hong（洪万金）  

Professorand Executive Director, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore

Pan Zheng (郑盼)      

McKnew Chair for Cancer Biology and Senior Investigator, Children’s National MedicalCenter

Yuan Zhuang (庄原)      

Professor,Duke University

Bing Ren (任兵)          

Professor，Universityof California, San Diego

Xian-Jie Yang (杨先洁）

Professor,University of California, Los Angeles

Weimin Zhong (钟伟民)    

Associate professor, Yale University