Chinese President Xi Jinping presented China's top science award – the Highest Science and Technology Award – to two academicians on Friday for their outstanding contributions to scientific and technological innovation.  

Huang Xuhua, chief designer of China's first-generation nuclear submarines, and Zeng Qingcun, a meteorologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), received the award medals and certificates during a ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.  

The National Science and Technology Award Conference honored 296 projects this year, with 46 winning the State Natural Science Award, 65 the State Technological Invention Award, and 185 the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award. Ten foreign scientists received the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

Among the scientists honored for their preeminent contributions to science and technology is Professor Roberto Battiston, chief scientist at Fondazione Amaldi. He told CGTN, "The first time I was in China was 1993, I saw the potential of Chinese scientists and technology, and in space, in particular, China has increased dramatically its capability to go to (the) moon and Mars, with a new type of satellite, and so I knew that China would have been a very solid friend and collaborator. On top of that, space is about international collaboration and cooperation."

Sir Martyn Poliakoff, a research professor at the University of Nottingham, also said that "successful scientific collaboration should start quite young as young scientists can grow up together".

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(CGTN's Liu Yang, Cao Qingqing, Pan Zhaoyi contributed to this story.)