The first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category, Tu Youyou was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. She is also the first Chinese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine and the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award, which she won in clinical medicine in 2011.
Tu's distinction rests on her discovery of artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, compounds used to treat malaria. This work is recognized as a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives across South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. Tu was born, educated, and carried out her research exclusively in China.
In September 2019, she was bestowed the Medal of the Republic, the highest honorary medal of the People's Republic of China.
