From November 1st to 4th, 2023, the 20th Annual Meeting of the Crop Science Society of China (CSSC) and the 60th Anniversary Celebration Conference of CSSC was successfully held in Changsha, Hunan province. At the opening ceremony of the meeting on November 2nd, the award ceremony of the Scientific and Technological Achievement Award (STAA) of CSSC was held. A total of 21 awards were issued, including two items for each of "Outstanding Achievement Award" and "International Contribution Award" of STAA for the year 2022, two items of "Innovation Team Award" for the years 2021 and 2023, four items of "Youth Awards", and eleven items of "Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award” of CSSC for the years 2021 and 2022.

The "International Contribution Award" is a new sub-award founded by the CSSC in 2022. The candidate should meet the following requirements: (1) have made significant academic achievements and played an important role in promoting the international development of crop science; have been recognized as academic leaders in the field of crop science in the world; (2) have made outstanding contributions to the development of crop science in China through scientific research, academic exchanges, talent training or international cooperation in the field of crop science; (3) Only for the foreigner. The award is biennial and no more than two laureates will be awarded in each session.

The 1st "International Contribution Award" of STAA awarded to two laureates in 2022, Professor Hiroshi Ikehashi from Kyoto University in Japan, and Professor Rudolf Appels from University of Melbourne in Australia.

Honorary Chairman Zhai Huqu and Academician Zou Xuexiao presented awards to the laureates

Professor Hiroshi Ikehashi first proposed the wide compatibility phenomenon of indica-japonica hybrids, discovered the wide compatibility gene S5ⁿ and confirmed the "unit point sporophyte-gametophyte interaction model" of indica-japonica hybrid sterility, and finally elucidated the genetic mechanism of rice indica-japonica cross-wide compatibility phenomenon, which set off a wave of research on the utilization of heterosis between indica-japonica subspecies in the field of international rice breeding. In South Asia, some local varieties with multiple wide-compatibility genes have been excavated, such as N22, dural and other varieties. The introgression of these wide-compatibility genes into the elite rice varieties through molecular marker-assisted selection has accelerated indica-japonica subspecific hybrid breeding. These achievements of Prof. Ikehashi not only laid a theoretical foundation for the utilization of heterosis between rice subspecies in China, but also provided favorable genetic resources for super hybrid rice breeding in China.

Another laureate, Prof. Rudolf Appels, is one of the leading founders and distinguished experts in international wheat genomics. He has long been commitment to the cooperation in the field of molecular genetics and genomics research on wheat between China and Australia, led the establishment of the Sino-Australian Joint Research Project on Wheat (CSIRO-CAAS) for the first time, promoted the implementation of a number of major international cooperation projects, successfully introgressed the yellow dwarf disease resistance gene of Glais intermediates into common wheat, created a wheat translocation line. He jointly established the Sino-Australian Joint Laboratory of Wheat Quality, participated in establishment of the quality evaluation system of Chinese wheat varieties and research on molecular improvement technology, drew wheat D genome sketches, and elucidated the origin of semi-wild wheat in Tibet, China. His outstanding contributions have been promoting the internationalization of wheat research and talent training in China.