Chinese Quantum Physicist Pan Jianwei Wins UNESCO’s Premier Basic Science Award

The United Nations has announced that Chinese quantum scientist Pan Jianwei has received its top fundamental science award for his contributions to quantum computing and communications.

He is a recipient of the third UNESCO‑Russia Mendeleev International Prize in Basic Sciences, an award named after Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the periodic table.

Funded by the Russian government, this annual prize recognises two researchers whose basic‑science breakthroughs have spurred worldwide or regional change.

“[Pan] is recognised for his pioneering work in large‑scale secure quantum communications and scalable quantum computation,” UNESCO stated in a July 10 announcement.

“His team built the Micius satellite, which enables quantum key distribution and teleportation across thousands of kilometres, and has demonstrated quantum computational advantage, turning the idea of a global quantum network into reality.”

Pan, a physics professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), shares this year’s award with Sergei Sheiko, a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recognised for his polymer‑physics research that reshaped the rational design of soft materials.

Pan leads the USTC team behind Jiuzhang 4.0, the nation’s newest photonic quantum computer. In May, the team reported completing a computation in just 25 microseconds—a task they estimate would require the world’s most powerful supercomputer, El Capitan in the United States, more than 10⁴² years to finish.

In 2016, Pan’s team launched Micius—also known as Mozi—the world’s first quantum satellite—into low Earth orbit to enable long‑distance quantum transmissions. Quantum communication provides a secure method for information transfer, exploiting quantum‑mechanical principles that thwart eavesdropping.

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