The great master of mathematics Shing-Tung Yau has a firm teaching belief of "cultivating and discovering talents should begin with high school students". By introducing the organization and selection methods of international competition to China, he has established S.-T. Yau High School Science Award since 2008.

This competition is much different from the original science competitions: first, it is available to the global high school students; secondly, it requires the students to submit their research reports instead of writing the standard answers to the examination papers.

There was only mathematical award 15 years ago. As time goes by, physical award, chemical award, biological award, computer award and Economic and Financial Modeling award of S.-T. Yau High School Science Award have been already established to make up of a complete scientific award system with mathematical award. S.-T. Yau High School Science Award is promoting the development of Chinese youth scientific research and helping the talented and enthusiastic teenagers to explore the mysteries of science.

There are more than 12000 teams from 2000 schools taking part in the competition. The competition areas include 30 provinces in China, as well as many oversea areas, such as North America and Singapore. After the careful reviews from more than 450 scientists in the world, there are totally 850 students from 461 teams receiving the awards. More than half of the award-winning high school students are recommended to the world famous universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Harvard University, MIT, Yale University, Princeton University and so on. Some of them insist on doing the academic research after entering the ideal university.