We are delighted to announce that the winners of the 2025 Gao Shan Young Scientist Award are Dr. Qian Zhang and Dr. Da Wang. Founded in 2018, the Gao Shan Young Scientist Award is one of the most prestigious honors for early-career scientists in the field of solid Earth sciences. Each year, the award recognizes up to two outstanding young researchers (aged ≤ 35) who have made exceptional contributions to advancing solid Earth sciences.

Presented annually by the Gao Shan Young Scientist Award Foundation at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), the award embodies the Foundation’s commitment to fostering excellence in solid Earth science research and nurturing the next generation of scientific leaders. For this year’s selection, distinguished Earth scientists were invited to conduct an anonymous review and vote on the candidates via correspondence evaluation.

We are proud to introduce the winners of this year’s award:

Dr. Qian Zhang

Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Dr. Zhang has made internationally influential contributions to understanding the longevity of lunar volcanic activity. Based on samples returned by the Chang’e-6 mission, he identified two compositionally distinct episodes of volcanism on the lunar farside at ~4.2 Ga (high-aluminum basalts) and ~2.8 Ga (low-titanium basalts). These results demonstrate that prolonged volcanic activity could be sustained even under conditions depleted in radiogenic heat-producing elements on the lunar farside. He further established a novel sulfur isotope criterion to distinguish the origin of lunar glass beads and identified volcanic glass beads formed at ~120 Ma from Chang’e-5 samples. These findings reveal that small-scale volcanic activity persisted into the very late stage of lunar evolution and led to the proposal of a new mechanism for young lunar volcanism.

Dr. Da Wang

Chengdu University of Technology

Dr. Wang’s research mainly focuses on the theoretical and experimental study of isotopic anomaly effect and related mass spectrometry techniques. His research contributes significantly to our understanding of the origin and early evolution of Earth. He and his co-workers proposed a complementary differentiation model linking the Hadean mantle depletion with the pro-crust formation, based on the ¹⁴²Nd isotope anomalies of global ancient terranes. His systematic study of Sm-Nd isotope behavior from mineral to whole-rock scale offers a new solution to the early-Earth Hf-Nd paradox. His development of the high-precision analytical technique for triple K isotopes leads to the confirmation of ⁴⁰K isotopic anomalies in primitive chondrites, which opens a new window to exploring the source of volatile elements of Earth. His identification of ⁴⁰K heterogeneity in Earth’s mantle reservoirs fills the gap for the missing end-member for Earth’s building blocks in the inner solar system. Finally, his work on a nano-metal activator significantly improved the ionization efficiency of TIMS.

Details of the award ceremony will be announced separately.

Gao Shan Young Scientist Award Foundation

February 27, 2026