On May 30, 2020, Prof. Zhang Weihua and Prof. Wang Kaiyun of Southwest Jiaotong University won the National Pioneer Innovation Awards presented jointly by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the China Association for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and scholars and professors from 81 universities received medals and certificates of merit at the awards ceremony.

On May 30, China’s fourth National Science and Technology Workers Day, the Second National Pioneer Innovation Commendation Conference was held in Beijing. Prof. Zhang and Wang won the National Pioneer Innovation Awards. The University’s number of winners ranked 14th across the country. Professor Zhang Weihua received the National Pioneer Innovation Team Award as the key player of the “Fuxing EMU Research, Development and Innovation Team”.

As a renowned scholar of rail transit, Professor Zhang Weihua has always been painstakingly pursuing innovation. He presided over the establishment of the high-speed train digital simulation platform, basic research experiment platform and service performance research experiment platform, and led his team in the completion of the dynamics researches and parameter optimization design for all the high-speed trains in China. He has played a key role in China’s high-speed railway innovation development, and won 5 National Science and Technology Progress Awards. This time, Prof. Zhang was presented the National Pioneer Innovation Team Award as the key member of the “Fuxing EMU Research, Development and Innovation Team”. In his pursuit of innovation for the past three years, he carried out the projects of next-generation high-speed train, high-speed railway system safety assurance technology and ultra-high-speed low-vacuum maglev transportation, bespeaking the future of rail transit with his innovative research results.

Prof. Wang Kaiyun, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, researcher and doctoral supervisor, has always been spearheading China’s railway researches. Earning him the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2019, his project “Key Safety Technologies and Engineering Application of the Interaction Between Heavy Haul Train and Tracks” was implemented to solve the bottleneck safety problems induced by longitudinal impulse in the operation of heavy haul trains and track structures. He engaged in the researches on the key safety technologies for the interaction between heavy-haul train and track structures, devised the dynamic interaction system analysis method, and developed technologies to reduce the longitudinal impulse and wheel-rail train dynamic effects. These technologies have been successfully applied in a large scale (in more than a dozen national key projects) in China, leading to substantial social and economic benefits and exerting significant influence on the international community. In addition, Prof. Wang also won the first prize (ranked the 3rd) as the key member of the project and the second prize (ranked the 9th) of the National Science and Technology Progress.