2025 “Deep Life Paper” and “SiYuan-Ocean Emerging Leaders” Awards Announcement
The International Center for Deep Life Investigation (IC-DLI) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 “Deep Life Paper” and “SiYuan-Ocean Emerging Leaders” Awards.
The purpose of the awards is to recognize significant scholarly contributions and outstanding early career researchers in order to encourage further contributions into deep life research and foster the next generation of researchers in this field.
2025 “Deep Life Paper”
Out of all the top papers of 2025 proposed by the IC-DLI community, the award committee selected the following five articles as making the most remarkable contributions to the field of deep life.
Gan, S.#*, Heuer, V. B.#, Schmidt, F., Wörmer, L., Wang, F., Adhikari, R. R., ... & Hinrichs, K. U. (2025). Moderate heating renders 7.8-million-year-old sedimentary organic matter bioavailable. Science Advances, 11(34), eadw8638.
For showing that higher temperatures can activate organic matter in deep sediments and make it available for biological activity, with potentially significant implications for the carbon cycle and the limits of deep life.
Jones, D. O. B.*, Arias, M. B., Van Audenhaege, L., Blackbird, S., Boolukos, C., Bribiesca-Contreras, G., ... & Glover, A. G. (2025). Long-term impact and biological recovery in a deep-sea mining track. Nature, 642(8066), 112-118.
For transformative evidence of persistent deep-sea ecosystem impacts four decades after experimental mining, revealing partial biological recovery trajectories and redefining the timescales of ecological resilience in abyssal environments, providing critical environmental insights for global ocean stewardship.
Peng, X.#, Du, M.#*, Gebruk, A., Liu, S., Gao, Z., Glud, R. N., ... Mordukhovich, V.V.# &Adrianov, A. V. (2025). Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches. Nature, 645(8081), 679-685.
For the significant discovery of the deepest and most extensive chemosynthetic ecosystems on Earth within hadal trenches, redefining carbon cycling in the deep biosphere.
Wang, C.#, Zheng, R.#, & Sun, C.* (2025). Deep-sea viral diversity and their role in host metabolism of complex organic matter. Nature Communications, 16(1), 10134.
For pioneering multi-omics elucidation of deep-sea viral roles in reprogramming host metabolism of complex organic matter, revealing unique temperate RNA virus dynamics in nascent cold seeps that redefine viral contributions to subseafloor carbon cycling.
Xiao, X.#*, Zhao, W.#*, Song, Z.#, Qi, Q.#, Wang, B.#, Zhu, J.#, Lin, J.#, Wang, J.#, Hu, A.#, Huang, S.#, ... Zhang, W.*, Han, M.*, Xu, X.*, & Liu, S.*. (2025). Microbial ecosystems and ecological driving forces in the deepest ocean sediments. Cell, 188(5), 1363-1377.
For pioneering the large-scale genomic exploration of Earth's deepest ocean trenches, revealing extraordinary microbial novelty and proving driving forces shapes the unique high-pressure adaptations, advancing deep-sea biology.
2025“SiYuan-Ocean Emerging Leaders”
This award honors early career researchers for their distinguished performance and outstanding potential as leaders in the deep life community. The recipients were selected from among candidates proposed by the members of the IC-DLI community.
The “SiYuan-Ocean Emerging Leaders” for 2025 are:
Dr. Weishu Zhao from Shanghai Jiao Tong University is recognized for unrevealing fundamental principles of pressure adaptation in Earth's deepest trenches, and establishing foundational frameworks for hadal ecosystem function that bridge extremophile microbiology with planetary habitability research.
Dr. Xiao Wu from Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is recognized for impressive research elucidating the critical role of crustal dynamics and mineral-mediated reactions in sustaining deep subsurface life and shaping Earth's early redox evolution.
IC-DLI warmly congratulates the award winners and pays tribute to their significant contributions to deep life research. The award winners will be invited to give honorable talks at the 2026 IC-DLI webinar.
We would also like to thank our award committee for their time and effort.
Award Committee:
Jens Kallmeyer (GFZ-Potsdam), Longhui Deng (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Mark Lever (The University of Texas), Mohamed Hatha (Cochin University of Science and Technology), Sabine Gollner (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research), William Brazelton (The University of Utah)
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