MUST scholar honored with China’s Friendship Award

A scholar from the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) was awarded the Friendship Award, the People’s Republic of China’s highest honor for “foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the country’s economic and social progress.”

Dr. Erwin Neher, a German biophysicist and Nobel Prize laureate, is the director of the Biophysics and Innovative Medicines Laboratory at MUST.

He is the first recipient from Macau and Hong Kong to receive the honor at the Great Hall of the People.

Dr. Neher has made significant contributions to biomedical science, earning an Honorary Doctor of Science from MUST in 2016. Under his leadership, the Nobel Prize Laboratory promotes the application of technological advancements in traditional Chinese medicine, supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund.

His team has achieved breakthroughs in clinical studies, ion channels, brain neuroscience, cancer research, and inflammatory diseases, with two members ranked among the top 2% of global scientists.

Beyond research, Dr. Neher is dedicated to science education, engaging with local secondary schools to inspire the next generation. He is also forging partnerships for research commercialization, notably with a Shandong seahorse breeding company and a Beijing reishi mushroom cultivation firm.

Dr. Neher’s appointment as director of the Shenzhen Neher Neuroplasticity Laboratory in 2019 has further enhanced brain science research in the Greater Bay Area, according to a statement from the MUST.