Tu YouYou is a medical scientist and chemist who became the first mainland Chinese to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for her discovery of Malaria cure. Born in 1930, Tu attended the Peking University School of Medicine (now Beijing Medical University) in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, then later completed another 2 years of studies in Chinese traditional medicine. Malaria was and still is a serious health issue in many parts of the world, and in May 1967 Mao ZeDong launched a project (Project 523) to find a cure for chloroquine-resistant malaria. At just 39 years old, Tu was appointed the head of Project 523 in 1969. In 1977, the work that her and her team completed on the treatment of Malaria was anonymously published as a way to give back and look out for the community.
Read more about her here:
https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/tu-youyou
