Born in December, 1930, Tu Youyou is a permanent and chief researcher at Institute of Chinese Materia Medica China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. She attended  Xiaoshi Middle School for junior high school and the first year of high school, before transferring to Ningbo Middle School.

For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award for discovering artemisinin and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with other two scientists. Tu is the first citizen of the People's Republic of China to win Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine and the first Chinese person to receive a Nobel Prize in this category. This is the highest honor for the medical science community in China and also for the Traditional Chinese Medicine. On January 9, 2017, she received the Highest Science and Technology Award, China. Tu was awarded the medal of reform pioneers by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on December 18, 2018.