The 17th Yau Science Awards Finals and Award Ceremony recently concluded, with 81 student teams from around the world gathering at Tsinghua University to compete for various awards. This year, awards were given in six disciplines: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, and Economics & Financial Modeling, including Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Merit awards, as well as the Science Gold Award for interdisciplinary excellence, totaling 61 awards.

Below is the list of winners from the 2024 Yau Science Awards Finals compiled by Embark mentors:

2024 Yau Science Awards Finals Science Gold Award

Biology Discipline

• School: The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Student: Liu Guangyu

Advisors: Fan Yubo, Fang Wei

Paper Title: Design, Optimization, and Mechanism Study of Antithrombotic Microstructure Surfaces on Mechanical Heart Valves Inspired by Shark-Skin Riblet

2024 Yau Science Awards Finals Mathematics Awards

Gold Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: Beijing 101 Middle School

Student: Gong Yunshan

Advisors: Qi Qi, Cai Lei

Paper Title: Optimizing Dart Throwing Strategies for the Elderly Based on Markov Decision Process

Silver Award

Award Distribution:  China

• School: Wuhan ISA Wenhua International School

Student: Sun Yutao

Advisor: Liu Xianming

Paper Title: Density Evolution in Stochastic Dynamical Systems with Memory: A Universal Algorithm

Bronze Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Student: Wei Hanxi

Advisor: Liu Jin

Paper Title: Mathematical Modeling of Long-Wave for Interfacial Waves in Two-Layer Fluids Based on the Dirichlet-Neumann Operator

• School: The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China

Student: Li Runbo

Advisors: Cui Wang, Guo Zhenyu

Paper Title: On Chen's Theorem, Goldbach's Conjecture and Applications of Sieve Methods

• School: Guangzhou No. 6 High School

Students: Shen Kaiyuan, Tang Zisheng, He Xicheng

Advisor: Qu Bin

Paper Title: Isodiametric Problems with Constraints in Three-Dimensional Euclidean Space

Merit Award

Award Distribution:  4 China, 1 Asia

• School: NUS High School of Mathematics and Science

Student: Ying Liqian

Advisor: Chua Ming Hwang

Paper Title: Make24: Bounding the Generalised Form of a Numbers Game

• School: Guangxi Normal University Attached Foreign Language School

Student: Guo Yaojie

Advisors: He Zhou, Luo Huaihua

Paper Title: Improvement and Generalization of the GPY Sieve Method

• School: Shanghai Pinghe Bilingual School

Student: Shen Ziyuan

Advisor: Ding Yuchen

Paper Title: On a Sign Change Problem on Sums of Divisors

• School: Hangzhou Dipont School of Arts and Sciences

Student: Yao He

Advisor: Feng Jingxing

Paper Title: Coloring Problems on the Triangular Lattice

• School: Jiangsu Tianyi High School

Student: Huang Yushi

Advisor: Wu Ting

Paper Title: On the Explicit Expression of an Extended Version of Riemann Zeta Function

2024 Yau Science Awards Finals Physics Awards

Gold Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: Nanjing Foreign Language School

Students: Peng Zixuan, Zhou Xiaoxi, Zhang Jifan

Advisor: Zhang Dong

Paper Title: Number Recognition by Listening—Traditional Acoustic Feature Analysis and Machine Learning Method for Estimating the Number of Balls in a Black Box

Silver Award

Award Distribution:  China

• School: Beijing No. 11 School

Students: Li Zhaoxuan, Han Baocheng

Advisors: Zhao Jingbang, Ma Chichuan

Paper Title: The Inseparable “Paper Vice” — Friction Amplification Phenomenon in Interleaved Assemblies

Bronze Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: Chongqing Yucai Middle School

Students: Yang Yunyi, Luo Haiyi

Advisor: Zhang Chengxin

Paper Title: Study on the Dynamics of Open Gas-Solid Coupling Systems in Buoyancy Phenomena of Objects in Carbonated Water

• School: Shenzhen College of International Education

Students: Yuan Ziou, Yang Rui

Advisor: Yang Yiming

Paper Title: Investigation of Rotational Dynamics in Asymmetric Acoustic Fields Within Acoustic Levitation Systems

• School: Phillips Academy Andover

Student: Valencia Zhang

Advisor: Jakob den Brok

Paper Title: Investigating Physical Conditions and Critical Factors Across the Center of the Galaxy M82

Merit Award

Award Distribution: 4 China, 1 Asia

• School: Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High School

Students: Lin Yongzhang, Luo Dazhao

Advisor: Lu Zhengliang

Paper Title: Wetting Tracing Paper Curling Behavior and Penetration of Fiber Porous Media

• School: Nanjing Foreign Language School

Students: Wei Chupeng, Xie Xiaolei, Wang Zibo

Advisor: He Liang

Paper Title: The Dance of Light Under Ultrasound: Exploring the Mysteries of Sonoluminescence

• School: ShanghaiTech University School Affiliated School

Students: Huang Yixuan, Li Zhangsheng

Advisor: Xue Jiamin

Paper Title: Exploration of Sound Amplification Principles in Music Boxes

• School: Hangzhou No. 2 High School of Zhejiang Province

Student: Yuan Kairui

Advisor: Xie Yanwu

Paper Title: Discovery of Superconductivity at the (La0.3Sr0.7)(Al0.65Ta0.35)O3/KTaO3 Interface

• School: The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China

Students: Wang Qige, Shi Xiaowei, Zeng Manyu

Advisor: Li Chun

Paper Title: Hydrodynamic Behavior of Non-viscous Droplet Retraction in Leaking Faucets

2024 Yau Science Awards Finals Chemistry Awards

Gold Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Advisor: Zhang Wenbin, Kong Ejing

Student: Kong Fanhao

Paper Title: Improving Intracellular Synthesis Efficiency of GFP Catenane through Directed Evolution

Silver Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: Shanghai High School International Division

Student: Li Yinuo

Advisor: Shang Luoran

Paper Title: Inkjet Printing of Photonic Crystals for Photothermal Responsive Structural Color Display

Bronze Award

Award Distribution: 2 China, 1 Asia

• School: The High School Affiliated to Sichuan University (Chengdu No. 12 High School)

Student: Wang Xueyang

Advisors: Ju Xiaojie, He Chunyan

Paper Title: Nitric Oxide Donor and Minoxidil Co-loaded Microneedles Improve Hair Loss Treatment

• School: Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School

Student: Lü Jianni

Advisor: Wang Liangxing

Paper Title: Study of CuO Thin Film Properties for Solar Cells

• School: Island School

Students: Wu Yilong, Dorottya Papp

Advisor: Gareth Cawson

Paper Title: Investigating Binding Affinities of the HPV E6-Associated Protein LXXLL Motif and E7 LXCXE Motif with Quinolines via Molecular Docking

Merit Award

Award Distribution: 4 China, 1 North America

• School: Zhengzhou No. 18 United International School

Student: Song Qiumeng

Advisor: Ge Jingmin

Paper Title: Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Furfural on Co3O4/NF Catalyst: Performance and Mechanistic Study

• School: Shenzhen Foreign Languages School

Students: Shan Hongjie, Zheng Yizeng

Advisor: Li Ruijia

Paper Title: The Sweet Solution: Enhancing Biodegradable Plastics by Shaping Sugar Ring into Eco-friendly Plastics

• School: Nanjing Foreign Language School

Students: Wu Zhiyuan, You Yue

Advisor: Hu Zheng

Paper Title: Designing Vertically Lamellar Architectures of Carbon Nanocages-Polyaniline Hybrid Aerogels to Achieve High-Performance Supercapacitors

• School: Old Scona Academic

Students: Aiden Chen, Jiao Xinan

Advisor: James Sochan

Paper Title: Computational Screening and Design of Metal-Organic Frameworks for CO2 Separation from Flue Gas

• School: The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Students: Cai Haolin, Zhao Bangnuo, Li Yueran

Advisor: Yang Dongyue

Paper Title: Simple Green Method for Constructing 2D LDH Heterojunction Materials and Their Applications

2024 Yau Science Awards Finals Biology Awards

Gold Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Student: Liu Guangyu

Advisors: Fan Yubo, Fang Wei

Paper Title: Design, Optimization, and Mechanism Study of Antithrombotic Microstructure Surfaces on Mechanical Heart Valves Inspired by Shark-Skin Riblet

Silver Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: Shenzhen Middle School

Student: Wang Jialin

Advisors: Zhu Yingjie, Hu Nan

Paper Title: Exploring the “Brain Switch” of Alcoholics: A Study on the Neural Mechanisms of Liraglutide

Bronze Award

Award Distribution: 2 China, 1 North America

• School: Beijing Royal School

Students: Wang Haoyu, Zhou Jinghan, Tao Chengxi

Advisors: Cao Jinman, Zhang Yang

Paper Title: The Impact of Earthworms on the Degradation of Microplastics in Soil

• School: The Harker School

Student: Andrew Liang

Advisor: Anuradha Datar

Paper Title: An Intelligent Bee Health Assessment System with Cross-Attention Multimodal Integration of Visual and Audio Data

• School: Dulwich College Beijing

Student: Yuan Mengdi

Advisor: Dominic Williams

Paper Title: Tableware Jitter Elimination Technology for Parkinson’s Patients

Merit Award

Award Distribution: 5 China

• School: Shanghai High School International Division

Student: Xie Aisi

Advisors: Feng Yili, Chen Lin

Paper Title: Development of a Gap-Driven Base Editing System

• School: Shanghai Pinghe School

Student: Li Mingxuan

Advisor: Li Xinjian

Paper Title: The Restoration of Social Defects in Schizophrenic Mice by Green Plant Exposure

• School: Nanjing Foreign Language School

Student: Bai Pengfei

Advisor: Jiang Ling

Paper Title: Exploration of Chitinase-Producing Strains in Xinjiang Saline-Alkali Regions and Enzymatic Degradation of Chitin in Crustaceans

• School: Fudan University Affiliated High School International Division

Student: Li Weizheng

Advisors: Zhang Lu, Zhao Tingyu

Paper Title: AI-Guided Design and Preliminary Validation of Anti-Tuberculosis Subunit Vaccine

• School: Chengdu Foreign Languages School International Curriculum Center

Student: Du Ruoxi

Advisor: Zou Fangdong

Paper Title: Inhibition of Planarian Regeneration by Mitochondrial Fission Imbalance-Induced Cellular Senescence

2024 Yau Science Awards Finals Computer Science Awards

Gold Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour

Student: He Kunlang

Advisors: Yan Junchi, Cody Kennedy

Paper Title: LLM Mathematical Reasoning Grounded with Formal Verification

Silver Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Student: Fan Yuhuan

Advisors: Gao Yue, Ma Jing

Paper Title: Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder via Brain-Population Graph-in-Graph Neural Networks

Bronze Award

Award Distribution: 3 China

• School: The Affiliated High School of South China Normal University

Students: Chen Yunfu, Zhang Hanzhi

Advisors: Yang Xiaoan, Zhang Yujin

Paper Title: Decoding History: Solving Complex Scene Oracle Bone Script Recognition with Vision Transformer-Based Image Restoration Techniques

• School: Shanghai High School International Division

Student: Fan Congrui

Advisor: He Tianzhou

Paper Title: CelsiaNet: Collaborative Understanding of Images and Text—A Multi-Modal Vision-Language Model Framework

• School: Shanghai Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU

Students: Chu Shiyu, Shen Zhekai

Advisor: Zhu Haobin

Paper Title: MMIDR: Multi-scale Mutual Information for AI Detection via Rewriting

Merit Award

Award Distribution: 3 China, 1 Asia, 1 North America

• School: The Webb Schools

Student: Sun Xiangzhou

Advisor: Joseph Martin

Paper Title: GazeLink: A Multi-language Low-cost Mobile Eye-gesture Communication System with Large Language Models for People with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

• School: Nanjing Foreign Language School

Students: Zhang Jinghan, Tian Zhengan

Advisor: Zhang Chuan

Paper Title: A Novel Crosswalk Traffic Light Detection Algorithm Resolving Multi-Light Interference for the Visually Impaired

• School: The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China

Student: Ma Yuan

Advisors: Wu Di, Weng Dongdong

Paper Title: SemanticLang: Infinite-length Document Information Extraction for Traceable Question Answering

• School: Shanghai American School

Student: Hua Ziyan

Advisors: Cheng Zhiqi, Xiao Jun

Paper Title: HRBench: Historical Reasoning Benchmarking for Large Language Models

• School: Sha Tin College

Student: Hong Wenxi

Advisor: Xu Bing

Paper Title: Multi-objective Optimization for Effective Active Debris Removal Mission Planning with Memetic Algorithms

2024 Yau Science Awards Finals Economics and Financial Modeling Awards

Gold Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: Shanghai American School Puxi

Advisor: Chen Yi

Student: Li Qing'ao

Paper Title: Importing for Producing: The Net Effect of Carbon Regulation on Emission Reduction

Silver Award

Award Distribution: China

• School: The Affiliated High School of South China Normal University

Advisors: Li Ruipeng, Huang Hualin

Student: Lu Yuke

Paper Title: Design of Optimal Government Carbon Offsetting Mechanism: A Theory Based on Regional and Industry Perspectives

Bronze Award

Award Distribution: 2 China, 1 Asia

• School: Beijing No. 11 School

Advisor: Wang Yizhen

Students: Chen Haoyu, Qi Yi'an

Paper Title: The Role of Credit Systems in Breaking the Prisoner's Dilemma in Multi-round Games

• School: Chinese International School

Advisor: Zhang Xiaoyu

Students: Shi Yi'an, Zhou Hanyi

Paper Title: Short Video and Mental Health: Evidence from China Family Panel Survey 2020

• School: Shanghai YK Pao School

Advisor: Maximilien MacKie

Student: Liu Yinkai

Paper Title: A Mathematical Framework of Interactions in the Metaverse

Merit Award

Award Distribution: 5 China

• School: Beijing No. 11 School

Advisor: Wang Xiao

Student: Xu Ziyue

Paper Title: Research on Emergency Rescue Models Based on Game Theory

• School: The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Advisors: Yu Lu, Peng Cong

Student: Liu Hanyuan

Paper Title: Cross-Strait Trade Rebalancing and Political-Economic Interaction in the Context of China-US Competition

• School: RDFZ Xishan School

Advisor: Kong Demei

Student: Xiao Rui

Paper Title: Differentiation or Homogenization? Impacts of Product Diversity on Jade Live-streaming Performance

• School: Shenzhen College of International Education

Advisor: Wu Shaoxi

Student: Nie Guanyan

Paper Title: Bi-level Game Analysis on Maritime Supply Chains Under Vessel Speed Reduction Policies

• School: Shenzhen Middle School

Advisors: Wang Yuan, Hu Nan

Student: Wang Jialin

Paper Title: Spectral Coskewness and the Valuation of Stocks

Source of award list: Yau High School Science Awards official website

S.-T. Yau High School Science Award

The Yau High School Science Award, initiated in 2008 by renowned mathematician Shing-Tung Yau, is a science innovation award for high school students. It evaluates based on "research academic papers" and "professional academic defense," promoting innovative thinking and teamwork, and moves away from exams and standard answers, focusing on paper submissions.

The award has expanded from a single Mathematics Prize sixteen years ago to include the Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, and Economics and Financial Modeling Prizes. It is listed in the Ministry of Education's competition whitelist for the 2022-2025 academic years and holds significant influence both domestically and internationally.

Yau Award Three Major Divisions

Mainland China Division: Open to high school students from various schools in mainland China, with separate reviews for the southern and northern regions, and an eastern division for the Mathematics Prize.

Asia Division: Open to high school students from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and other Asian countries, excluding mainland China.

North America Division: Open to high school students from countries outside Asia.

Why Participate in the Yau Science Award?

1.International Influence

The Yau Award has been successfully held for fifteen editions, with over 12,000 teams from more than 2,000 schools participating. It covers over 30 provinces and cities in China and several overseas countries like the USA and Singapore. Nearly 850 students from 461 teams have been awarded, with over 450 renowned professors and scientists worldwide serving as judges or advisors.

2.Successful Aid for University Applications

More than half of the award-winning students have been recommended to prestigious universities such as Tsinghua, Peking University, Harvard, MIT, Yale, and Princeton. Many continue their academic research even after entering their dream universities.

Participating in research competitions is a long-term commitment. Students need to invest time weekly to achieve satisfactory outcomes. High school students are often busy, and inadequate preparation time can disrupt the balance between studies and research!

Missed this year's Yau Award? Don't miss the Regeneron ISEF, another internationally recognized research competition highly valued by top US universities!

Embark has helped over 50 students reach the ISEF global finals in the past three years. Moreover, Embark students have claimed their own asteroids for three consecutive years!

Want to know more about next year's ISEF schedule, how to participate in global affiliated competitions, or create a long-term academic plan? Visit the Embark website for more details!

Embark is dedicated to helping students realize their potential through research, becoming future scientists and innovators.