Nature Lists China’s Mars Mission Chief as One of 2021’s Most Important Scientists

What’s new: Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of China’s first Mars mission has been named by the British scientific journal Nature as one of 10 people to have “helped shape science in 2021,” the sole Chinese on the list.

Describing Zhang as a national hero, the journal said that the engineer-trained physicist was central to the successful Mars mission, named Tianwen-1, which reached the red planet in May and landed a rover on its surface.