Brief News

Lu Yongxiang Visits Israel

Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS, and his entourage paid a visit to Israel from Mar. 15 to 18, and attended the Conference of Science Academy Presidents hosted by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities for the 50th anniversary of its founding. President Lu delivered a keynote speech entitled "Today and Tomorrow: the Value of Science and the Accountability of Scientists" at the conference. During his visit to Israel, President Lu also attended the National Science Day held in the Knesset for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. President Lu and his entourage also made a visit to the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, where he shared views with the Israeli partners about future cooperation and collaboration. President Lu pointed out CAS attaches great importance to the cooperation with scientific research institutes of Israel and the two countries shall further strengthen cooperation in material science, life and health, communication and other high-tech fields and in particular, promote the long-term cooperation and talent exchange.-10

Bai Chunli Visits U.S.A.

On Feb. 27, 2010, Bai Chunli, Executive Vice-President of CAS, successfully concluded his one-week visit to the U.S. During his stay in the U.S., Bai Chunli attended the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and visited the University of California at Los Angeles, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Emory University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. At the “Role of National Academy of Sciences in Society” session of the AAAS annual meeting, he delivered a lecture entitled “the Function and Role of CAS over its 60 Years’ Development History” to the academy presidents of different countries attending the meeting. The experience of CAS in making contribution to the country's development received special attention by the attendants. The Science Academy can better cope with its challenges only through serving the country more actively and comprehensively, as Bai firmly stressed. “The core mission of a science academy is to explore scientific truth on the basis of satisfying the country’s demands,” said Bai. He also delivered a lecture entitled “Nano-Science and Technology: Opportunity and Challenge” at the University of California at Los Angeles and the Emory University respectively. Bai and his entourage also met with Gene Block, President of the University of California at Los Angeles, Gary Schuster, Vice President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, David Stephens, Vice President of the Emory University and Patrick Gallagher, President of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and discussed with them about strengthening cooperation, scientific development, management of scientific research and other issues.

Jiang Mianheng Meets Andre Amado

On Mar. 31, Jiang Mianheng, Vice President of CAS, met with Andre Amado, the visiting Vice Foreign Minister of Brazil in charge of international high-tech collaboration, and his entourage. The two parties exchanged views on the issue of how to actively expand the S&T cooperation on a more practical basis. Jiang Mianheng gave a brief account of CAS, particularly relevant projects in high-tech field, and expressed his wish to further enhance and expand the exchange and cooperation with Brazil in the Meridian Project, climate change, bio-energy, agricultural biotechnology, nano-science, etc. Andre Amado endorsed his views, and introduced the experiences of Brazil in the development of bio-energy industry and the positions of Brazil on climate and carbon emission and wished to expand the multilateral S&T cooperation with China. Andre Amado hopes a cooperation framework agreement will be signed between the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil and CAS at a later time of this year.

Jiang Mianheng Visits Japan

Upon invitation of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Jiang Mianheng, Vice President of CAS, led a delegation of CAS to visit Japan from Feb. 21 to 27, 2010. During their visit to Tokyo, the delegation attended the Sino-Japan Seminar on New Energy Technology, which was co-chaired by Jiang and Takefumi Fukumizu, Vice President of NEDO. Both parties discussed solar thermal power generation, smart grid, cleaner coal technology and other issues at the seminar. After the meeting, Jiang Mianheng and Takefumi Fukumizu signed a Letter of Intent for the cooperation. Both parties agreed to carry out project cooperation in smart grid technology, solar thermal utilization technology and other fields.

Shi Erwei Visits Japan

Upon invitation of Yasutaka Moriguchi, Councilor of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT) and Sony Corporation, Shi Erwei, Vice President of CAS, led a delegation to visit Japan from Mar. 1 to 6, 2010. During their stay in Japan, the delegation visited MEXT, Sony Corporation and Tohoku University. During their discussions, Shi Erwei and Yasutaka Moriguchi exchanged views on further strengthening exchange and cooperation between the two parties in S&T policies. Both parties highly appraised the achievements made so far and agreed to hold the 7th Sino-Japan S&T Policy Seminar in China in May, which will focus the topics on S&T innovation after the financial crisis, S&T innovation in emerging industries, climatic environment and energy conservation & emission reduction, life & health and S&T innovation, etc.

Li Jiayang Meets Nguyen Dinh Cong

Li Jiayang, Vice President of CAS, met with Nguyen Dinh Cong, Vice President of the Vietnamese Academy of Sciences and Technology and the delegation on Mar. 19. The two parties exchanged views about further strengthening substantial cooperation between the two academies. He suggested the two parties should promote communications in energy, biodiversity, bio-medical, ocean, geology and geography, ecological environment and other fields of common interests and carry out bilateral and multilateral cooperation through personnel training, symposiums and collaborative research programs. The Vietnamese delegation paid the visit to CAS from Mar. 18 to 20.

Ding Zhongli Meets Yin Kim Sean

Ding Zhongli, Vice President of CAS met with Yin Kim Sean, Permanent Secretary (Executive Vice Minister) of the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia, and his delegation on Mar. 22. The National Botanical Garden of Cambodia will be the first botany in Cambodia. It is of important historic significance and the Garden will become a new emblem of friendly cooperation between China and Cambodia. Dr. Yin Kim Sean and his delegation made a visit to CAS from Mar. 21 to 27. The mission of the delegation is aimed to make awareness survey for the CAS botanical gardens and to discuss with CAS experts about the design and construction of the Cambodian National Botanical Garden.

Yin Hejun Meets Terasaki Akira

On Mar. 25, Yin Hejun, Vice President of CAS, met with Terasaki Akira, the visiting Councilor (Vice Minister level) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, and his entourage. Yin Hejun sxpressed that CAS signed two memoranda of understanding with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the its subordinate National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) respectively in 2005. He wished to strengthen the friendly relationship between the two parties through high-level exchange, jointly sponsoring symposiums, while Terasaki Akira hopes to strengthen cooperation in fields of information and communication technology.