Taking into account the contribution of academician Jalal Aliyev to the world photosynthesis science, the International Society of Photosynthesis Research (ISPR) made a decision to hold the 9th International conference on the theme "Photosynthesis and Hydrogen Energy Research for Sustainability", in honor of Jalal Aliyev and established the prize after his name (The Jalal Aliyev Lecture Scholarship Award). The first scientist received the Jalal Aliyev Prize was professor Jian-Ren Shen, from Okayama University of Japan. At the conference held in Baku on December 17-18, 2018, the Jalal Aliyev Prize was personally presented to Jian-Ren Shen by the Secretary of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research, professor Julian Eaton-Rye.

Jian-Ren Shen was born in 1961 in Zhejiang, P.R. China. Dr. Shen graduated from Zhejiang Agricultural University, China in 1982, and then entered to the Master course in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan, where he got the Master degree in 1986. He then entered to the PhD course in The University of Tokyo and obtained the Ph.D. degree in 1990 from The University of Tokyo. Dr. Shen worked as a Research Scientist in Solar Research Group, RIKEN Institute, Japan from 1990 to 1997, and a Senior Research Scientist in the same Institute from 1997 to 2003. He then moved to Okayama University, Japan as a professor from 2003 until now, where he is now a Professor and Vice Dean in the Institute for Interdisciplinary Science, Okayama University, Japan. Dr. Shen’s research is concentrated on the structures and functions of photosynthetic systems. He solved the structure of photosystem II at 1.9 Å resolution in 2011 (Nature) for the first time, and this result was selected as one of the “Breakthrough of the year 2011” by the journal Science. He and his group also solved the radiation damage-free structure of PSII (Nature, 2015), an intermediate structure of PSII (Nature, 2017), the structure of PSI-LHCI from a higher plant (Science 2015), the structure of LH1-RC from a photosynthetic bacterium (Nature, 2018) etc. Dr. Shen received a number of Awards in Japan, including the prestigious Asahi Prize in 2013, and the Prime Minister’s Award of Japan on Green Science in 2017.