Chilean Ecosystem Assessment Experts Visit China

In view of the achievements made by the Project Team for Comprehensive Assessment of Ecosystem in Western China, the General Team for international "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" lately set aside special funds to support experts from the developing countries to visit China for training on ecological modeling and GIS by relevant experts.
On 20 April Chilean experts Patricia Plisco and Juan Pablo Contreras visited the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research as the first group of experts sponsored by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Project. Members of the Resources Environment Model and System Simulation Research Team from the National Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System introduced and demonstrated their work and the achievements made, which were highly appreciated by the Chilean experts.

Editor in Chief of ACS Publications Visits Shanghai Organic Institute

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Stang, Professor from the Chemistry Department of the University of Utah and editor in chief of JACS magazine paid an academic visit to Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry on 5 April. The Institute organized a symposium on supermolecular chemistry, and Professor Peter Stang was specially invited to give a lecture titled "Nanoscale Molecular Architecture: Design and Self-Assembly of Metallocyclic Polyhedra via Coordination"

Prof. Watabe Takeshi from Japan Gives Lecture at the Institute for History of Natural Sciences

At the invitation of MPI Partner Group, Mr. Watabe Takeshi, a renowned expert and professor of the Oriental History Research Division, Tokai University of Japan paid a visit to the Institute for History of Natural Sciences on 19 March 2004 and gave a lecture titled Farming Cultures of Southwest China's Ethnic Minorities and Rural Investigation.

Director of Functional Food Bureau, NIH of USA Visits Institute of Materia Medica

Dr. Paul M. Coates, Director of the Bureau of Functional Food, NIH of the United States paid a visit to the Institute of Materia Medica recently, and gave a lengthy lecture on NIH's Role in Research on Functional Food and Herbal Medicines. Among those present at the occasion were also the heads of R&D Departments of biopharmaceutical companies from Shanghai, the Zhangjiang Area in particular.

Dr. Cerf, "Father of Internet" Visits China Science Network

Upon the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Chinese Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf, known as the "Father of Internet" paid a special visit on 14 April to CAS Computer Network and Information Center Chinese Internet's first full function access location and the builder of China's first Science Network to connect with the Internet. Dr. Cerf visited with high spirit the Super Computer Room of the Network Center, China's first full function router to connect with the internet, the first router developed independently by the Science Network and China's first CN Domain Server etc.