Nobel laureate Tu Youyou and physicist Zhao Zhongxian were honored Monday with China's 2016 Top Science and Technology Award, which includes 5 million yuan ($721,000) as prize money, at a ceremony in Beijing.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences' Zhao has dedicated over four decades to research in superconductors.

Superconductivity refers to a phenomenon where electrons travel with no resistance when a conducting material, known as a superconductor, is cooled below a certain temperature.

Tu, a pharmacist, is best known for her 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for her work using artemisinin to treat malaria.

Tu is the first woman to have been given China's top science award.

Twenty seven people have been awarded since the prize was established in 2000.

The Top Natural Science Prize went to a new type of neutrino oscillation found in the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment conducted in South China's Guangdong Province.

The Chang'e-3 project shared the Top Science and Technology Progress Award with 19 others.

A statement issued by the State Council on its website, five foreign experts, including Bielefeld University professor Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus and Mexico-based International Maize and Improvement Center (CIMMYT), a non profit organization that does research on the sustainable development of wheat and maize farming, are among the previous awardees.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and State Council, China's cabinet, hosted the ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.(Ecns.cn)