BEIJING - Fifty young scientists were bestowed Xplorer Prize in Beijing Saturday.

Apart from receiving a trophy at Saturday's ceremony, each of the 50 prize winners will be awarded a total of 3 million yuan (about 426,000 US dollars) over the next five years by the Tencent Foundation, according to the prize's sponsor and initiators.

The Xplorer Prize was jointly initiated by Tencent Chairman and CEO Pony Ma and 14 scientists in 2018 to support full-time mainland scientists under age of 45 in areas of basic science and cutting-edge technologies.

The 50 winners were selected from more than 1,300 entries.