Science, Medicine & Engineering
Landmark
Tu Youyou
born 1930
Discoverer of artemisinin and Nobel laureate in medicine
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the China Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
The pharmaceutical chemist who discovered artemisinin, a drug that has saved millions of lives from malaria, and the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize.
In 1969 Tu Youyou joined a secret national project to find a treatment for malaria. Drawing on a fourth-century text on traditional remedies, her team extracted artemisinin from sweet wormwood, and it became the basis of the most effective malaria treatments in use today.
She shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, becoming the first Chinese woman to receive a Nobel Prize.
She shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, becoming the first Chinese woman to receive a Nobel Prize.
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