The 2020 S.-T. Yau High School Science Award finals have recently concluded at Tsinghua University. Three teams from Shenzhen Middle School stood out from 92 finalists from all over the world and won the only Gold Medal of Science, as well as an additional gold medal, a bronze medal, and a winning award, the best results in the history of the school.

Known as the “Young Nobel Prize,” the S.-T. Yau High School Science Award covers six disciplines: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and economic and financial modeling.

Huang Feiyang from Shenzhen Middle School received a gold medal in chemistry. Beating the other five gold medalists from the fields of physics, mathematics, biology, computer science, and economic and financial modeling, Huang won the Gold Medal of Science, becoming the overall winner of the year.

According to Huang, the prize has inspired him to try scientific research activities outside of his classroom studies and to experience science. “During the competition, I discussed interesting scientific problems with experts from all over the world; from the preliminary round to the final round, I was enlightened and benefited from every defense experience,” he said.

Two other Shenzhen Middle School teams also won a bronze in the field of economic and financial modeling and a winning award in mathematics. All these students said that the competition has broadened their horizons and honed their skills in cooperation and research, making them learn about cutting-edge research and developments in this field. The economic and financial modeling team, composed of Li Jinpeng, Dong Xingzhi and Yang Haotian, conducted an empirical analysis study from the perspective of critical data analysis on the theme of the impact and recovery of the food and beverage industry during the COVID-19 epidemic.

This year, more than 1,500 teams and nearly 1,700 students from 17 countries applied for the prize, and more than 900 papers were submitted. Some 92 student teams, including 72 from the Chinese mainland, were selected for the finals.(Tang Li)