China on Friday spotlighted five "most beautiful sci-tech workers" whose achievements reflect the country's push for technological self-reliance.

The workers span space exploration, ecological restoration, medicine and plateau agriculture.

Gui Haichao, a Beihang University professor and China's first payload specialist aboard the China Space Station, spent 154 days in orbit during the Shenzhou-16 mission in 2023, completing 68 experiments.

"When I was in college, China launched a manned mission once every two or three years. Now it's two per year," said Gui, who now leads research on space robotics and orbital debris.

Kong Hainan, 77, a retired Shanghai Jiao Tong University professor, spent over 20 years restoring Erhai Lake in Yunnan after severe algal blooms, helping improve its water quality to Class II standards. He recalled spotting the first wild Ottelia acuminata – a key water health indicator – in 2017 after 11 years of waiting.

Chen Lei, a neurology professor at West China Hospital, built the world's first database for women of reproductive age with epilepsy, a long-neglected field. She said the work was inspired by pregnant patients desperate for guidance on whether they could safely have children.

Song Rende, a veterinary researcher at 4,200 meters above sea level on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, spent 40 years developing yak breeding and feeding techniques. Herders call him "Doctor Yak" – both for his doctorate and because his results are, in their words, "incredibly impressive."

Huang Guiyun, a plant conservationist with the Three Gorges Group, has relocated and protected 2,160 rare plant species and is now applying those techniques to desertification control in northern China.

"Science and innovation are like two wings of a bird – neither can be missing," Huang said, stressing the need for public science education.