(FILE)

Professor Qiu Renzong has been awarded the 2009 Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science by the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

A UNESCO statement said Qiu was a pioneer in the field of bioethics and that the prize committee had made the award to Qiu as a recognition of his research on the ethics of science and steadfast public advocacy of ethical issues related to science.

Besides his work on life-sustaining technology, assisted reproduction technology, public health and cloning, Qiu has made a leading contribution to policy on ethics with more than 20 volumes and nearly 280 articles published on related issues and guidelines for researchers and policy-makers.

Qiu, 77, is currently an emeritus senior research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and chairman of the Academic Committee at the Center for Bioethics at the Peking Union Medical College.

The biennial Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science, named after the 11th-century physician and philosopher Abu Ali al-Husain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna, aims to encourage activities of individuals or groups in the field of ethics in science.