Academy Vice President Zhu CHEN Meeting with Prof. David King

In his visit to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. David King, Chief Advisor of Science and Technology to the British Government, was met with by Zhu CHEN, Vice President of the Academy at the Headquarters. Prof. David King proposed a new concept on bilateral cooperation between China and the UK: "I would suggest that our future cooperation should not be limited to the sponsoring of collaborative research projects, but should focus on supporting the networking of the best scientists from both countries and provide various facilities for them." "In the next three years," he said, "OST will appropriate 300,000 pounds annually to the Royal Society, because it is a specialized academic institution able to guarantee the quality of selected scientists from the UK."

Vice President Zhu CHEN agreed to the proposal on enhancing the exchange and cooperation between young outstanding scientists from the two sides, for example, between the awardees of the CAS "Hundred Talents Program" and the URF Program of the UK.

Sino-Canadian Cooperation Project on Carbon Cycle Research Launched

A Sino-Canadian Cooperation Project, "Response to global warming: enhancing the storing capacity of carbon in China", was officially launched on 2 August 2002.

The project is part of the Global Environment Project of CIDA. The Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources (IGSNR), Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for implementing the project in cooperation with the University of Toronto, Canada. Prof. Jiyuan LIU, Director of IGSNR, is the person in charge of the project. Institutions involved in the project include: Canadian Center for Remote Sensing, Canadian Environment Agency, Canadian Agency of Natural Resources, Nanjing University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing University of Forestry, Nanjing Institute of Soil Sciences (CAS), Beijing Normal University, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CAS), and so on. More than one hundred scientists and engineers from China and Canada are involved in this project, with a total investment of nearly 20 million yuan (RMB).

The project adopts internationally established technical methods to design a remote sensing (RS) model of carbon cycle adapted to the land conditions of China. Through the revising of parameters and landforms, observation and integrated analysis of typical zones, scale transformation and identification, a model of RS process has been developed for calculating the carbon sources of Chinese forests, grasslands and soil, and thus the computation of large-scale carbon cycle is realized.

International Symposium on Disaster Weather such as Storms Held in Chengdu

The International Symposium on Disaster Weather such as Storms was held at the Institute of Information Engineering, Chengdu, Sichuan from June 15 to 21, 2002, with more than 70 participants from China, USA, Norway and Denmark. The Organizing Committee of the Symposium was co-chaired by Prof. Shouting GAO from China and Prof. D.L. Zhang from the University of Maryland, USA. The meeting addressed the following issues: numerical modeling of the structure, intensity and paths of typhoon; methods for assimilation of satellite and radar data and their applications; evolution of resolvable clouds and theoretical study on ways of influencing the weather; theory and methods for forecasting the evolution of storm systems and the movement of raining zones; integrated forecast; and so on.

Workshop on Energy Measurement Technology for the Developing Countries Held at IOP

The Workshop on Energy Measurement Technology for the Developing Countries was held at the Institute of Physics (IOP), CAS on August 9, 2002.

14 experts and scholars from Malaysia, Vietnam, South Africa, Indonesia, Mongolia, Egypt and Burma participated in the workshop. A representative from the League of Arab States also attended the meeting.
The workshop has enhanced mutual understanding and friendship, thus laying down a good foundation for future cooperation.