Tu Youyou is a pharmaceutical chemist whose genius for blending ancient knowledge with modern science saved millions of lives. During the 1960s, she was tasked with finding a cure for malaria, which was devastating North Vietnamese troops. She turned to ancient Chinese herbal texts, identifying sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) as a potential treatment. By using a low-temperature extraction method described in a 1,600-year-old manual, she successfully isolated artemisinin. She even volunteered to be the first human subject to test the drug's safety. Artemisinin-based combination therapies are now the global standard for treating malaria. Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015, becoming the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel in Physiology or Medicine.