On March 27th, Alfred French, the president of the American Chemical Society’s Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division presented the 2011 Anselme Payen Award to Wuhan University Professor Zhang Lina，making her the first Chinese person in 50 years to win the award.

  

Since Zhang Lina, also a member of the Chinese Academy of Science, could not attend the award ceremony and thus sent a video to express her gratitude in fluent English: “It’s an honor for me, for Wuhan University, and for my country, to have won this award.” 

  

About 120 scientists from the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Finland and China, etc., attended the ceremony, praising the contributions made by Zhang and her team.

  

Since Zhang Lina returned from Japan 26 years ago, she devoted herself to fundamental and applied research of biomass resources and natural macromolecular material science. Through perseverance and dedication, her team has made a series of original achievements and become one of the foremost research groups in the field of cellulosic material.

Established in 1962, the Anselme Payen Award is given annually to those who have made outstanding contributions to the science and chemical technology of cellulose and related fields. The winners of this award are internationally renowned scientists after being selected by a panel of nine pier judges.