Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the relationships between the time and space of rocks and the varied processes that have formed and affected them.

Shen, a professor at Nanjing University and an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was presented the medal and certificate by the ICS on July 4 at the Third International Congress on Stratigraphy in Milan, Italy. The prize, established in 2004 and awarded every four years to one person, honors high-quality research in stratigraphy by recognizing a single major achievement in advancing stratigraphy.

The 58-year-old academician is the fifth recipient of the medal. Along with other researchers, Shen has demonstrated the simultaneity and instantaneity of the Permian mass extinction, concluding that the main reason behind it was dramatic changes of the ground surface environment caused by large-scale magmatic activities.

Born in 1961 in east China's Zhejiang Province, Shen holds a PhD degree from the China University of Mining and Technology. He was elected an academician of the CAS in 2015 and joined Nanjing University in 2018.