1. Professor Peng Chen, scientific consultant of Chomix, has been awarded the first phase of the New Cornerstone Investigator Program.

 

The first batch of New Cornerstone Investigator Program has just been announced with 58 outstanding scientists on the list. Among them, six professors from Peking University were awarded.

School of Mathematical Sciences, Professor Ruochuan Liu

College of Chemical and Molecular Engineering, Professor Peng Chen

College of Chemical and Molecular Engineering, Professor Ding Ma

College of Future Technology, Professor Ying Liu

School of Life Sciences, Professor Yulong Li

School of Life Sciences, Professor Lijia Qu

Professor Peng Chen’s research interest:

Developing immune decoding technology based on "living cell connection sequencing" to crack the "recognition code" of T cell receptors and antigenic peptides and realize the precise design of cancer vaccines.

      Under the guidance of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the New Cornerstone Investigator Program is led by scientists, funded and independently operated by Tencent, with a planned investment of 10 billion RMB over 10 years to support 200-300 outstanding scientists.

      The most distinctive feature of the New Cornerstone Investigator Program is that it selects scientist, not projects, and supports them to conduct exploratory and risky basic research, expecting to discover important scientific questions, develop disciplinary frontiers and promote original breakthroughs. This means that the New Cornerstone Investigator Program are not given specific research tasks and a deadline to produce results, meanwhile not assessed on the number of papers. The New Cornerstone Investigator Program provides researchers with long-term, stable and flexible funding, creating a stable research environment for them to quietly "sharpen their swords for ten years”.

      In the opinion of Academician Qihuang Gong, President of Peking University, the New Cornerstone Investigator Program brings social funding’s superiority into full play selects people rather than projects, which will strongly support scientists to develop new directions, propose new concepts, theories or methods, stimulate new research paradigms, and create an environment conducive to free exploration. It is hoped that with the support of the New Cornerstone Investigator Program, a group of future strategic scientists and academic leaders can be identified, cultivated and fostered, and more "zero-to-one" innovation can be realized.