Rao Zihe, President of Tianjin-based Nankai University, was awarded the Outstanding Academic Leadership prize on October 7 at the World Hi-Tech Forum 2009 in London.

    Rao, 59, a molecular biophysicist and structural biologist, received his Ph.D in protein crystallography from Melbourne University in 1989 and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Oxford University, from 1989 to 1996. He won the 2006 Trieste Science Prize for deciphering the first crystal structure of the coronavirus, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome. His findings provide a potential framework for the design of drugs against the epidemic disease that killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2003

    Rao was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003 and a fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in 2004. He began to serve as president of Nankai University in May 2006.

    The aim of the World Hi-Tech Forum, which is organized by the British Institute of Technology and E-commerce, is to bring the global community together to facilitate technological and business partnerships. China is the "focus country" of this year's session.