The Most Famous
BIOLOGISTS from China
This page contains a list of the greatest Chinese Biologists. The pantheon dataset contains 841 Biologists, 4 of which were born in China. This makes China the birth place of the 30th most number of Biologists behind Slovakia and Finland.
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Chinese Biologists of all time. This list of famous Chinese Biologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Leizu ( - )
With an HPI of 52.87, Leizu is the most famous Chinese Biologist. Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages on wikipedia.
Leizu (Chinese: 嫘祖; pinyin: Léi Zǔ), also known as Xi Ling-shi (Chinese: 西陵氏, Wade–Giles Hsi Ling-shih), was a legendary Chinese empress and wife of the Yellow Emperor. According to tradition, she discovered sericulture, and invented the silk loom, in the 27th century BC.
2. Shi Zhengli (1964 - )
With an HPI of 48.20, Shi Zhengli is the 2nd most famous Chinese Biologist. Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.
Shi Zhengli (simplified Chinese: 石正丽; traditional Chinese: 石正麗; born 26 May 1964) is a Chinese virologist who researches SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origin. Shi directs the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). In 2017, Shi and her colleague Cui Jie discovered that the SARS coronavirus likely originated in a population of cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Xiyang Yi Ethnic Township, Yunnan. She came to prominence in the popular press as "Batwoman" during the COVID-19 pandemic for her work with bat coronaviruses. Shi was included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
3. Flossie Wong-Staal (1946 - 2020)
With an HPI of 46.28, Flossie Wong-Staal is the 3rd most famous Chinese Biologist. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Flossie Wong-Staal (née Wong Yee Ching, Chinese: 黄以静; pinyin: Huáng Yǐjìng; August 27, 1946 – July 8, 2020) was a Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist. She was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, which was a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS. From 1990 to 2002, she held the Florence Riford Chair in AIDS Research at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She was co-founder and, after retiring from UCSD, she became the chief scientific officer of Immusol, which was renamed iTherX Pharmaceuticals in 2007 when it transitioned to a drug development company focused on hepatitis C and continued as chief scientific officer.
4. Feng Zhang (1981 - )
With an HPI of 27.72, Feng Zhang is the 4th most famous Chinese Biologist. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Feng Zhang (Chinese: 张锋; pinyin: Zhāng Fēng; born October 22, 1981) is a Chinese–American biochemist. Zhang currently holds the James and Patricia Poitras Professorship in Neuroscience at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also has appointments with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (where he is a core member). He is most well known for his central role in the development of optogenetics and CRISPR technologies.
Pantheon has 4 people classified as biologists born between 1946 and 1981. Of these 4, 2 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living biologists include Shi Zhengli and Feng Zhang. The most famous deceased biologists include Leizu and Flossie Wong-Staal. As of April 2022, 2 new biologists have been added to Pantheon including Flossie Wong-Staal and Feng Zhang.
