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-renowned biologist who, in the 1970s, developed the first method for DNA sequencing and pioneered the recombinant DNA technology. In the later part of his career, he devoted to genetic engineering of rice. Professor Wu was a life-long advocate for developing life science research in Asia.  In 1982,Professor Wu initiated the first large-scale exchange program in biology which brought over 400 students from China to obtain Ph.D. degrees in the US.  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’s seminal contributions in training China’s new generation of biologists. Seventy 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 the following 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 career advancement purposes. RWMF will serve as a liaison for the awardees who wish to seek consultation from established investigators as they develop their scientific careers.

Approximatelyten awards may be made each year. Candidates from all geographical areas are encouraged to apply and special considerations will be given to semifinalists from each under represented major geographical area.

Criteria: The Ray Wu Prize recognizes excellence 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. The candidate must have advanced to candidacy in the PhD program by the deadline of application.

Nomination: A candidate may be nominated 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 actively conducting 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.php  available below. 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 and authentic.

2.A two page essay (English or Chinese) by the candidate in which the motivation of pursuing a PhD degree, personal interest in the current field of own research, 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 the right order. The name of the PDF file must be Familyname_Givenname_RWP2016.pdf(e.g. Chen_Xiaohua_RWP2016.pdf).

Submitthe PDF file by clicking the button below:

Online Submission

Inaddition, the candidate must request a letter of recommendation from the nominating faculty member (letter1), and two additional letters of recommendation from other faculty members who know the candidate well professionally (letter2 and letter3). The letter must be in an envelope sealed by each faculty member with candidate’s name on the back of the envelope, sent to:

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_RWP2016_letter1(2 or 3).pdf(e.g. Chen_Xiaohua_RWP2016_letter1.pdf).

Important Dates:

March31, 2016, deadline for applications to be received.

April30, 2016, notification of receipt of completed applications (by email or othermeans).

June31, 2016, completion of review.

July29, 2016, award ceremony 

Website of Ray Wu Memorial Fund:http://www.raywumemorialfund.org/

The Ray Wu Prize committee

Chair:

Xiaodong Wang(王晓东)

Director, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing

Members:

XuemeiChen（陈雪梅）

Professor,University of California, Riverside

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

ShengDing (丁胜)      

Professor,University of California, San Francisco

Jun-LinGuan (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-WenWang (王昭雯)

Instituteof Plant and Microbial Biology, Taiwan

MingLuo (罗明)      

Professor,Georgia State University

YiminZou (邹益民)

Professor，University of California, San Diego

Xiao-HongSun (孙晓红)

Lewand Myra Ward Chair and Member, Oklahoma Medical ResearchFoundation

WanjinHong（洪万进）

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

PanZheng (郑盼)      

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

YuanZhuang (庄原)

Professor,Duke University

BingRen (任兵)          

Professor,University of California, San Diego

Xian-JieYang (杨先洁）

Professor,University of California, Los Angeles

WeiminZhong (钟伟民)  

Associate professor, Yale University