He is known as a "stubborn ranger" and has identified the sources of more than 20 major rivers around the world with his team.

On February 22, Rolex announced the winners of the 2023 Rolex Award for Enterprise. Among the five highly anticipated winners, one is from China. He is Liu Shaochuang, a researcher at the Institute of Aerospace Information Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the first Chinese scientist to win the award.

The Rolex Awards for Enterprise are part of the Rolex "Protect the Planet - Always Moving" program, which supports outstanding individuals and organizations to further understand the challenges facing the global environment through science and technology, and develop solutions to restore the balance of the earth's ecosystem. It is reported that Liu Shaochuang won the 2023 Rolex Awards for Enterprise with his project "Using Innovative Technology to Save Endangered Wild Camels".

Liu Shaochuang, one of the winners of the 2023 Rolex Awards for Enterprise

More than a decade of tracking wild camels

When talking about Liu Shaochuang, we have to mention wild camels.

Wild camels are known as the "kings of the desert" and monitoring changes in their habitats in order to develop more effective animal protection strategies is crucial to ecological development.

So, when did Liu Shaochuang start to pay attention to wild camels?

The time goes back to 2011.

In 2011, the Yutu lunar rover was tested in the northwest desert. Here, Liu Shaochuang paid attention to the wild camels.

Wild camels are covered in short light brownish-yellow fur and are thinner and taller than domestic camels. They are also called "wild Bactrian camels" and are a first-class protected animal in China and listed as a critically endangered species by the World Conservation Union. Experts estimate that there are less than 1,000 wild camels in the world, of which about 650 are in China.

As for the extremely endangered wild camels, people only roughly know that they are distributed in the deserts of northwest China and Mongolia, but their specific migration routes and living habits are not clear.

In 2012, Liu Shaochuang began to lead his team to track these "kings of the desert" with the help of satellite navigation systems such as Beidou and GPS, and to monitor habitat changes. On May 6, 2012, at the junction of the Aqike Valley in Lop Nur and the Kumtag Desert, Liu Shaochuang's team put a satellite positioning collar on a female wild camel.

Liu Shaochuang (right) is installing a satellite tracking device on a wild camel (Photo from Xinhua News Agency)

This female camel is one of the 10 wild camels that Liu Shaochuang tracked. After more than a year of tracking, he and his team obtained the first batch of wild camel location tracking data in human history.

"Studying the movement paths of wild camels through satellite tracking systems is of great significance for understanding what threats they face, where they drink water, how to protect these water sources, and formulating targeted protection measures," said Liu Shaochuang.

In recent years, Liu Shaochuang and his team have found that the activity area of ​​wild camels is shrinking and moving to high-altitude and cold areas, which means they may face more dangers.

Therefore, Liu Shaochuang called for the expansion of wild camel protection areas in Xinjiang, Gansu and other places, and the establishment of a wide-ranging and strong wild camel national park. At the same time, he believes that building an integrated ground-air monitoring system, strengthening observation of species and local environment, and strictly controlling illegal mining and explorers are effective means to improve the protection of wild camels and their habitats.

The scientific exploration journey of "Liu Dadaner"

Liu Shaochuang's curiosity for scientific exploration is innate.

Liu Shaochuang was born in an ordinary peasant family in Xiaopanzhuang Village, Meichang Town, Wuqing District, Tianjin in November 1963. He was diligent and studious since childhood, and daring to take risks. His childhood friends gave him the nickname "Liu Dadaner".

In 1981, Liu Shaochuang was admitted to Wuhan University of Surveying and Mapping with excellent results, and after graduation, he successfully entered the Surveying Teaching and Research Section of the Department of Disaster Prevention Technology of the National Institute of Disaster Prevention Science and Technology to engage in teaching. During his work, he was rigorous in his academic research and was highly praised by the leaders, teachers and students of the institute, but he still believed that he needed to continue to deepen his research in related fields. In order to seek a breakthrough, he returned to Wuhan University of Surveying and Mapping to study photogrammetry and remote sensing, and obtained a doctorate in engineering in 1997, becoming a researcher at the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the following years of work experience, Liu Shaochuang has created a series of miracles in the field with his professional knowledge and skills.

In 2002, Liu Shaochuang began to lead the Arctic scientific research project and became the first person in China to successfully reach the North Pole on foot alone without any support.

During this expedition, in order to do more detailed scientific research along the way, Liu Shaochuang refused to take a helicopter or an icebreaker, but chose to challenge the limits of human body and insisted on walking for the expedition. Hard work pays off. After going through countless tests, he successfully reached the North Pole at 90° north latitude. It is worth mentioning that the data on sea ice thickness, seawater drift, temperature, wind force, air pressure, etc. collected along the way have accumulated solid original data for large-scale ice expeditions and laid a solid foundation for further remote sensing research.

In addition, Liu Shaochuang's research scope also covers rivers around the world.

Since the 1990s, Liu Shaochuang's team has begun to explore the combination of satellite remote sensing technology and field surveys to determine the source and length of major rivers. So far, they have re-determined the source and length of more than 20 major rivers in the world.

Liu Shaochuang was interviewed by CCTV

After learning that he had won the 2023 Rolex Award for Enterprise, Liu Shaochuang was very calm. At the age of 60, he still has many goals to achieve.

In his opinion, it is worthwhile to spend so much scientific and technological resources to study wild camels, a species with less than 1,000 camels. "Wild camels have strong adaptability in harsh natural environments, and relevant studies have found that their genes may provide reference for human treatment of tumors, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases," said Liu Shaochuang.

But he admitted that humans still don't know much about the number, distribution and habits of wild camels, and that there may be a long way to go to fully understand wild camels. Even though the road ahead is difficult, he is still fascinated.

“I like to do pioneering work,” he said.