A SHENZHEN scientist was awarded the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in the field of fundamental physics in San Jose, California, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.

    It is the first time a Chinese scientist has been honored with this prize, the Daily said.

    The scientist, named Wang Yifang, is the chief scientist at Daya Bay’s neutrino project.

    A neutrino is a type of subatomic particle.

    Wang and his team discovered neutrinos moving in a previously undocumented way in March 2012.

    The American Journal of Science chose the discovery as one of the top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2012.

    Seven other head scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners in physics this year, were also awarded the same Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics as Wang.

    The Breakthrough Prize foundation was created by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

    The prize gives winners up to US$3 million, far more money than the Nobel Prize.

    Daya Bay’s neutrino experiment project began in 2006, with 80 scientists from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 23 scientists from the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

    (Zhang Yang)