Technician's relentless rigor earns accolades

Work of master craftsman behind China's deep-sea ambitions

In a workshop tucked against the South China Sea, Zhou Hao machines parts with precision down to 0.003 millimeters — about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair. For the 46-year-old chief technician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences'Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, that margin separates success from catastrophe 10,000 meters beneath the ocean's surface.

"When machining parts and debugging equipment, not a single step can be done carelessly," Zhou said.