Professor Tu Youyou, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, at the award ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall, Stockholm, Dec 10, 2015. [Photo/IC]

3. Medicine

Major headway was made in the field of medicine. Last year, Chinese pharmacologist Tu Youyou, now 85, became China's first medicine Nobel laureate. Tu was honored for developing Artemisinin, a drug therapy based on a traditional Chinese herb to treat malaria that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world.