BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- It is not easy to contact Du Mengran, who usually spends nearly half a year at sea, and part of that time, diving thousands of meters beneath the waves.
She hardly looks like someone who could tame the deep sea. Slender, petite, with a ponytail, the 39-year-old could be the girl next door. It is not until you notice her blue suit, emblazoned with a submersible-shaped armband and the Chinese characters for "China Manned Deep-Sea Diving," that you can realize her career.
She has been an ocean researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for 12 years. The journal Nature called Du "Deep Diver" and named her one of the 10 people who shaped science in 2025 for her discoveries, alongside the founder of the DeepSeek AI model. Now Du is the recipient of this year's China Youth May Fourth Medal, the country's top honor awarded to youths.
Du has dived more than 30 times aboard China's submersibles. The most remarkable one was in 2024, when she led a team that discovered an animal ecosystem at over 9,000 meters below the surface of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in the northwestern Pacific. That depth is greater than the height of the world's highest peak.
As the submersible Fendouzhe (Striver) descended to 9,533 meters, its lights revealed a stunning sight: the dark seabed covered with dense clusters of blood-red, tube-shaped worms, swaying like crimson corals.
"At that moment, we forgot to breathe," Du recalled.
The research team found the worms' tentacles were rich in hemoglobin, giving them a red color. Around them were clams, sea anemones and other tube worms. The discovery overturned the long-held belief that no complex life exists below 9,000 meters.
Du and her two teammates spent seven hours inside a cramped cabin, using robotic arms to collect samples and record videos. When the submersible resurfaced, the entire research vessel burst into excitement.
Over the next month, Du led 24 more dives. Along the 2,500-km trench, they repeatedly observed similar worm communities, which formed a continuous "deep-sea life belt."
Sample analysis showed that these deep-sea creatures can withstand enormous pressure and that their cell membranes can maintain normal material exchange in extreme environments.
"These creatures do not rely on sunlight. They coexist with microbes and get energy from methane and hydrogen sulfide," Du explained. "The process can be called chemosynthesis."
The journal Nature published its findings in early 2025. International scholars said they offered new clues to how life evolved. Previously, scientists believed that deep-sea life fed only on the remains of plants and animals sinking from the upper ocean.
The discovery was hard-earned. At 9,533 meters deep, the submersible's hull endured a force equivalent to a car pressing down on a fingertip.
This is not the first time the small woman has shown a strong heart.
In 2025, Du led a team to the Puysegur Trench off the coast of New Zealand, a region known for its fierce storms. Despite two-story-high waves, her team completed dozens of dives, seizing the brief intervals between the waves and winds.
"When the pilot asked me why I didn't back down," Du wrote in her diary, "I said: the abyss never turns away a visitor. It is just waiting for eyes humble enough to see."
"Her passion for deep-sea science is fierce," said Du's colleague Peng Xiaotong. "That is one reason that we made the discoveries."
In a male-dominated field, Du never asks for special treatment due to her gender. "In the face of science, everyone is equal," she said.
Every time the submersible resurfaced, she rushed to the lab with samples, racing against the clock despite seasickness. "I don't feel tired, only excitement," Du said.
She also enjoys the small pleasures of returning to land, such as binge-eating vegetables and lying on the sofa scrolling through her phone. "They feel like a luxury," she admitted. But the joy of scientific discovery is incomparable.
Du grew up in Anhui, an inland province in eastern China. "She was smart, determined and persistent in everything she did," recalled Kong Dezhen, her high school teacher.
In 2004, Du was enrolled at the Ocean University of China. In 2014, having earned her PhD from Texas A&M University in the United States on a government scholarship, Du joined the newly founded Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering under the CAS in the island province of Hainan.
The institute started humbly. It rented a two-story building from a school. Its lab equipment often tripped the circuit breaker; a few dozen researchers shared one large office; and with no research vessels, they borrowed small fishing boats for sea experiments.
But the atmosphere was joyful. "It encouraged us to stay patient, not to chase trends," Du said, noting that the institute offered her freedom to explore without academic pressure.
Over the years, the institute has grown into a world-class research center. It now operates two homegrown submersibles, including Fendouzhe, which has set China's manned diving record of over 10,000 meters.
In June 2025, the UN endorsed the Global Trench Exploration and Diving program. It was proposed by the Chinese institute, in collaboration with partners from more than 10 countries.
Under the program, China and Chile launched a joint expedition to the eastern Pacific, which concluded in March this year. Du, the Chinese chief scientist of the expedition, told Xinhua that one achievement was finding new evidence for the "global deep-sea life corridor" hypothesis proposed by her team.
The young scientist has many exploration plans, one of which is to explore the ocean beneath the polar ice.
Whatever challenges lie ahead, Du said she would meet them with the belief she has carried for years: "I enjoy living with nature, and it always teaches me something new." ■
