Chinese paleontologist, CAS Member ZHANG Miman (Meemann Chang). (Credit: IVPP)
At the 18th International Symposium on Early and Lower Vertebrates held in Berrechid, Morocco from February 7 to 10, upon the proposal and vote of the Organizing Committee of the International Society of Early and Lower Vertebrates, a new award—the Meemann Chang Award—was established in honor of Prof. ZHANG Miman, a Chinese paleontologist from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The award aims to recognize outstanding young researchers in the field.
The Meemann Chang Award is one of the only two awards currently in the field of early vertebrate research. The other one is the Stensiö Award, which honors the research achievements and influence of middle-aged and young scholars in this field. Dr. LU Jing, an IVPP researcher, was presented with the Stensiö Award at this symposium.
Prof. ZHANG, a CAS Member, is a founder of paleoichthyology and research on the origin of tetrapods in China. Her achievements have shifted the focal region for research on the origin and early evolution of sarcopterygians from Europe and America to China. ZHANG was once elected as the President of the International Society of Paleontology and is currently a foreign academician of the national academies of sciences of multiple countries.
ZHANG has been honored with a lot of prizes/awards. In 2016, she was awarded the Romer-Simpson Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 2018, she became the first Chinese scholar to win the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award; and in the same year received the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Achievements. In 2021, the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center officially named an asteroid “Meemann Chang” in her honor.