Pan Jianwei. [Photo by Deng Jia/Asianewsphoto]

Pan Jianwei

In 2011, 41-year-old Pan became the youngest academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China's top science and technology body.

He is the chief scientist of world's first quantum satellite project. The satellite, named after ancient China's philosopher and scientist Micius, was launched in August last year.

Pan graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China, and got his PhD in Vienna University in Australia. After coming back to China, in 2001, Pan set up the country's first lab for manipulating the quantum properties of photons. In 2009, Pan and his team became the first in the world to put quantum communications technology to work outside a laboratory.

Quantum communication is important for a country's information security because a quantum photon can neither be separated nor duplicated which means it is impossible to wiretap, intercept or crack the information transmitted through it.