On October5, Tu Youyou, 84, became the first Chinese to win a Nobel Prize in natural science. She is only the12th woman in history to be awarded the honor.
Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China on 30 December 1930. She once studied at Xiaoshi Middle School and Ningbo Middle School. Her teacher said that Tu liked reading books and she was very hard-working. From 1951 to 1955, she attended Beijing Medical College. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine.
Tu was given the award for her discovery of artemisinin(青蒿素), which has been developed to fight against malaria(疟疾). When Tu started her search in the late 1960s, over 240,000 compounds(化合物) around the world had already been tested, without any success. Her interest in traditional Chinese medicine drew her to ancient texts and finally found the sweet wormwood(青蒿),which had been used to treat malaria in China around 400 A.D. After more than190 failures, she invented the right drug in 1971.
Tu Youyou doesn't have a Ph.D., neither has she ever studied or worked overseas. One former colleague, Liao Fuming, who has worked with Tu for more than 40 years, describes her as a "tough and stubborn(固执) woman."
Tu is stubborn enough to spend many years putting ancient texts together and use them in modern scientific practices. The result is millions of lives saved.
"She has done wonderful contribution to the world with her work, she really deserves it! It's a blessing for the Chinese people, as it is for the world!" Mats Wahlgren, member of the Nobel Assembly said.
