Respected Chinese-born American physicist Xiaoxing Xi was awarded the American Physical Society’s Andrei Sakharov Prize on Tuesday for “steadfast advocacy in support of the U.S. scientific community and open scientific exchange.”

In May 2015, Xi, a professor and former Chair of the Physics Department at Temple University in Philadelphia, was arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice on espionage charges. In an embarrassing mix-up for the justice department and the FBI, the blueprint they had accused Xi of illegally sharing with Chinese scientists was not for a pocket heater — used in superconductor research — but for a different device Xi had invented and shared as part of normal academic collaboration.

The case was dropped in September the same year. Xi is now suing the lead FBI agent involved in his case for falsifying evidence.

The award citation also noted Xi’s “efforts to clarify the nature of international scientific collaboration in cases involving allegations of scientific espionage.”

The prestigious biennial award of $10,000 to a Chinese-American physicist comes as growing tensions between China and United States are hitting science and technology scholars. The U.S. has ramped up scrutiny of visas for Chinese academics due to accusations of intellectual property theft.

Read the full story on Caixin Global later today.

Contact reporter Ren Qiuyu (qiuyuren@caixin.com)