In the words of Richard Corlett, a world-renowned British conservation biologist, it was China's sincere commitment to biodiversity conservation that brought him to the country's Yunnan province in July 2012. Before then, Corlett had studied tropical plants for over three decades in Southeast Asia. After receiving an invitation from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he happily packed his bags and embarked on a new research journey.

The old saying "a rolling stone gathers no moss" has evolved over the years, coming to mean that one must keep moving in order to stay fresh and keen, particularly when it comes to a career. But, what about those who are always moving around, doing so to literally only gather moss?

China's top science award winner Zeng Qingcun is a pioneer of numerical weather forecasting. Recognized by many as the world's top meteorologist, Zeng, for more than six decades, has been studying the Earth's atmosphere and its changes. He is a pioneer of numerical weather forecasting; has developed infrared remote-sensing theory for meteorological satellites; and made scientific contributions to disaster risk reduction.