‘BeiDou Goddess’: key figure in China GPS-equivalent satellite system, earns PhD by 26

A Chinese scientist behind China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System rejects the “goddess” label, asserting that research transcends gender. Xu Ying, 43, hails from Sichuan province in southwestern China, born to a maths teacher mother and an agricultural technician father. As a gifted child with a passion for physics and mathematics, Xu began primary school at the age of four, entered university