The Ding Prize Announced

April 25, 2026, Beijing - On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Tsinghua University's astronomy discipline and the 7th anniversary of its Department of Astronomy, a new scientific award, The Ding Prize, was formally announced. Initiated through a personal donation by Mr. Ziheng Ding, the prize is intended to encourage researchers and young students in the Radio Astronomy Laboratory of the Department of Astronomy at Tsinghua University to continue exploring the unknown universe, and to achieve infinite amplification of spirit under finite funding conditions.

During Tsinghua's astronomy anniversary celebration on April 25, Mr. Ding listened attentively to heartfelt remarks from Academician Tibei Li, Department Chair Di Li, and several alumni of the Department of Astronomy. Academician Li encouraged younger scholars to pursue research with a distinct Tsinghua spirit, while Professor Li recalled his unforgettable experience of studying, growing, and conducting research on the Tsinghua campus. Moved by the atmosphere, Mr. Ding immediately decided to donate RMB 1 as seed funding to establish The Ding Prize.

The amount is small, but its meaning is substantial. The preparatory committee noted that the single yuan evokes renewal and a fresh beginning, symbolizing how every great scientific discovery begins with a simple question, a chance spark of inspiration, and a large grant that has not yet arrived.

According to the prize charter, The Ding Prize will be awarded for the first time beginning in 2026. The first five standing categories are:

• PhD Student Award: recognizing doctoral students who complete high-quality dissertations in radio astronomy, make important stage-by-stage progress, or remain awake during group meetings over the long term.
• Postdoctoral Fellow Award: recognizing postdoctoral researchers who demonstrate independent research ability, strong academic potential, and a practiced ability to distinguish between "change it right now" and "change it next week."
• Supervisor Award: honoring supervisors who devote exceptional effort to graduate training, laboratory development, late-night WeChat replies, and outstanding mentorship outcomes.
• Moyu Award: presented to researchers who maintain a low observing duty cycle and a high scientific output rate within nonlinear research rhythms. The award recognizes involution-oriented talent who may appear temporarily offline, but are in fact integrating cosmic signals in the background.
• Sports Award: recognizing members who actively organize or participate in laboratory sports and cultural activities, in the spirit of civilizing the mind and strengthening the body. After all, radio telescopes can rotate with servo systems; researchers still have to rely on their backs.

The selection committee will consist of relevant members of the Radio Astronomy Laboratory of the Department of Astronomy at Tsinghua University, with an anonymous alumnus serving as its inaugural chair. The committee emphasized that selection work will strictly follow the basic principles of contribution first, narrative as supplement, and funding that cannot be sustained. In addition to honorary certificates, awardees will share the deeply meaningful RMB 1 prize purse. If divided equally across the five inaugural categories, each recipient will receive RMB 0.2, symbolizing abundant harvest and a twenty-cent starting line.

At the founding ceremony, the anonymous chair of the selection committee said, "Mr. Ding's generosity may be numerically close to the background noise, but spiritually it has an exceptionally high signal-to-noise ratio. The Ding Prize reminds us that the value of science is never measured by the amount of funding, but by curiosity, imagination, and the boundaries not yet defined by reimbursement systems." He then added, "I often moyu as well, and only later realized that the largest catch usually does not swim into a proposal on its own."

The inaugural Ding Prize ceremony is tentatively planned for December 31, 2026, or any day convenient for moyu that does not interfere with group meeting, at the Department of Astronomy at Tsinghua University. The ceremony will be livestreamed subject to network conditions. Whether Mr. Ding himself will attend remains an unobserved variable; the relevant team said it will continue a joint search through multi-band, multi-messenger, and multi-reminder observations.

Under the interim rules, the Sports Award recipient must complete one pull-up at the award site. If conditions do not permit, the committee will determine the exact implementation according to its mood. Any objection may be submitted in writing, provided that it includes records of no fewer than three exercise sessions.

About The Ding Prize

The Ding Prize is a non-traditional award rooted in Tsinghua, directed toward the Radio Astronomy Laboratory, and radiating across the entire observable universe. It is committed to stimulating the largest possible imagination with the smallest possible funding, and to leveraging the greatest spiritual momentum with the smallest possible budget. Additional donations from all sectors of society are welcome, though in principle each donation must use RMB 1 as the basic unit, in order to preserve the original aspiration, structural stability, and financial interpretability of the award.

News contact: The Ding Prize Temporary Preparatory Committee. Committee size: Top secret. Contact: During working hours on any working day, face the Department of Astronomy at Tsinghua University and shout "Ziheng Ding" three times. If there is no response, the signal is still in transit.