The 55-year-old man with a primary school education won the second-grade award for his "Technology in the Prevention and Control of Underground Project Water Disaster."
On Monday, the Chinese government honored a number of eminent scientists and researchers in Beijing for their distinguished contributions to the country.
China Central Television yesterday reported on its Website that Wang spent 23 years on inventing a new type of water-proof material.
The cement-like substance can solidify within six seconds, much shorter than the national standard, which is 20 seconds.
His new technology has been adopted at about 1,000 projects across the country, including the Beijing Metro Tunnel and the Three Gorges Dam.
Foreign countries such as South Korea, Morocco and Bangladesh are also using Wang's invention as they cope with water-related accidents in underground constructions.
Wang told reporters his mind was made up about the research after he came across a water permeation accident in a mineshaft in 1982.
"I saw miners filling holes with soya beans," he recalled.
Afterward, Wang sold a female pig, the only valuable thing his family owned then, to buy research material. During his long-term and, often, painstaking research, he made numerous on-site experiments at mineshafts to test whether the material was effective in waterproofing.
Holding the State Award in his hands, the peasant said he still had two dreams to realize.
One is to set up a special base featuring the study and development of concrete in three years; the other is to become an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
http://english.xuezhishi.net/groundwork/news/2007-02-27/7927.html
