At the 2020 working conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) held on January 16, 2020, ZHANG Yaping, Vice President of CAS, announced the winners of the 2019 CAS International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. Professor Ewald Schnug, one of the three foreign experts won the awards, was nominated for the prize by the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of CAS. ZHANG Yaping highly praised IAE and the other two institutes that cooperated with the three foreign experts. BAI Chunli, President of CAS, presented award medals and certificates to the winners.

Professor Schnoug, the world's top scientists in soil and soil fertilizer, is currently the director of the Institute of Crop and Soil Science of the German Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants and distinguished professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. As a recognized leader in soil and agroecology, Professor Schnoug made outstanding contributions in areas of plant sulfur nutrition, fertilizer and environment, precision agriculture and remote sensing, etc.

Professor Schnug is keen to help China and has worked closely with research institutes in China for more than 20 years. He introduced new inhibitor material and stable fertilizer processing technology to China and made important contributions to enriching the types of stable fertilizer products in China. Two innovative technological research he participated in had won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award of China. The cooperative research with Chinese scientists created the sulfur deficiency model and plant nutrient absorption rate theory, established an ecological evaluation & recycling isolation methodology for uranium and other heavy metals in soil and phosphate fertilizer, and proposed a precise, light and simple fertilization technology which has become a technical paradigm of high-yield, high-quality and high-efficiency agriculture.

Professor Schnug has long been training scientific & technological personnel from China. Many of them have become the new-generation of academic leaders and S&T innovation talents in China. He did a lot to help China to be a new world centre for fertilizer research. With his support, China twice hosted the World Fertilizer Conference. He also recommended Chinese scientist to serve as the chairman of the International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers. In view of his distinguished scientific achievements, international influence and outstanding contribution to China's international cooperation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences awarded him the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

The CAS International Science and Technology Cooperation Award was established in 2007 to award the foreign scientists in long-term cooperation with CAS, making outstanding contributions to major technology breakthrough, constructing big-science facilities, and training Chinese S&T talents. The Award also helps to encourage and gather global talents to join the Chinese Academy of Sciences to carry out scientific and technological innovation research.