Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou: a true role model

Tu, 84, has been chief professor at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing since 2000. She is a very humble person.

She said the award was an honour for all the country's scientists because "they did decades of research together".

I think we can all learn from her wonderful attitude.

There are more important things than winning awards or making money.

If we all work together, we can make the world a better place.

Charmaine Wong Shee-man, Christian Alliance S. C. Chan Memorial College

Thank you for your letter, Charmaine. I agree that Tu Youyou is very inspiring, and her work will no doubt help millions of people.

It's also true that if we work together, we can make the world a better place. The problem is that human nature makes people greedy.

A lot of people who have the potential to do good work are tempted by money or other offers. They include scientists who, instead of working hard to find a cure for disease, are hired by companies who pay them to develop cosmetics or other less useful products.

But the reason people want to be rich is because it's seen as a sign of success. So the first obstacle is to change society's definition of success. That change can start with us. Rather than celebrating people for their fortune, we should celebrate true heroes, like Tu.

Instead of doing jobs for the money, we should look to do work that makes a difference. Only when we are helping others are we truly successful.

Lucy Christie, sub-editor