After receiving Chinese award, chemist and materials researcher says it gives him confidence that he’s ‘on the right track’
5-MIN READ5-MINVictoria BelaPublished: 7:00pm, 15 Jul 2026Leading Russian chemist and materials scientist Artem Oganov, who received China’s top international science and technology award, said the honour from the world’s No 1 science power was a sign he was “on the right track”.Oganov, a distinguished professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow and long-time China collaborator, and eight other experts were awarded the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a ceremony in Beijing last week.After Oganov visited China in 2008, he told colleagues and friends in Europe that the country was “on the way” to being No 1 in both industry and science, but said this was met with scepticism at the time.
Noting that America used to be the top scientific power, he pointed to the fact that China now accounts for a third of global scientific publications, adding that it was not just numbers, but “quality”.
China holds the top spot in the 2026 Nature Index – an analysis of over 125,000 research articles published in 178 leading publications in 2025 – with the US in second place.
