| The Tenth General Assembly of the Members of the Chinese Academy Sciences was convened from 5th to 9th of June, 2000 in Beijing. Chinese President Jiang Zemin addressed the meeting, enunciating the spirit of science, the importance of establishing the national innovation system and cultivating talented young scientists, and urging the scientists to contribute more to the modernization drive of the nation. Premier Zhu Rongji and Vice Premier Li Lanqing also spoke to the gathering. The Assembly elected seven new Foreign Members and issued certificates to the 168 new Members elected last year. Now the Academy has 625 Members and 36 Foreign Members. In conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) which was convening its Fifth General Assembly, CAS sponsored a series of academic activities entitled "Scientific and Technological Reviews and Outlooks of the Century" and seminars entitled "Frontiers of Engineering Science and Technology". The activities and seminars were open to the public. The seven newly elected Foreign Members are: Tsui Daniel Chee (USA), H. Inokuchi (Japan), Tomas Hokfelt (Sweden), Hartmut Michel (Germany), Y.C. Ho (USA), C.T. Sah (USA), and Y. Austin Chang (USA). |
| Seven
Chinese scholars from the US, Japan and Germany have had their presentations
reviewed as candidates for leading scientists of newly established disciplines
in CAS for the year of 1999. The activity is organized by the CAS review
committee for introduction of talents from abroad. Prior to this, the review
committee, composed of specialists from the Ministry of Science and Technology,
the Ministry of Finance, CAS and the National Natural Science Foundation
of China, had chosen another 53 candidates from more than 100 applicants.
These candidates have all long-time working experiences abroad and hold
doctorate degrees, and have made remarkable achievements in their respective
fields.
Before these review activities, CAS had through strict selection procedures chosen 108 talented scholars from 300 applicants who have been working or studying abroad. Forty-seven of them have each obtained the support of 2 million yuan from the government as research fund. The other 61 young scientists will soon get their share. Since the launching of the Pilot Program of the Knowledge Innovation Project, CAS has made greater efforts to train and attract talents at home and abroad. The government has established in the Academy a specific fund totaling 600 million yuan to introduce overseas outstanding talents. The plan is that 300 overseas outstanding scholars will be introduced within 3 years and will be given positions of leading scientists in their respective fields in the Academy. |
| CAS has
granted the CAS Presidential Scholarship and other scholarships and teaching
awards to outstanding scientists. In its 50 years of educational undertakings
the Academy has trained a large number of talented people. It has enrolled
31,300 Master degree candidates and 12,700 doctoral students. At present
11,000 graduate students are studying at colleges or institutes affiliated
with the Academy. CAS-trained graduates have been playing a major role
in China's modernization drive, and many of them have become leading scientists
in research. These remarkable achievements have attracted wide-spread attention
in various circles at home and abroad. Personalities of insight have set
up scholarships and teaching awards in the Academy. In addition to the
scores of scholarships in its institutes and colleges, the Head Office
of CAS now directly administers seven scholarships and three teaching awards.
These scholarships and teaching rewards are significant in the attraction,
encouragement and training of talents. Institutions at home and abroad
vie to employ the scholarship winners, especially the winners of the special
reward of the CAS Presidential Scholarship.
Alongside with the CAS Presidential Scholarship, other named scholarships and teaching awards issued include Liu Yongling Scholarship, Weihua Scholarship and Teaching Award, Di'ao Scholarship, Huawei Scholarship and Teaching Award, P&G Scholarship for Outstanding Doctoral Students, Baogang (Baoshan Iron and Steel Company) Scholarship and Teaching Award, and Daheng Optics Scholarship. |
| To further deepen the understanding
by high-ranking scientific and technological managers and specialists of
strategic problems and national conditions related to science and technology
innovation, and help them keep pace with the trends of the development
at science frontiers in the world, the Academy, which is conducting the
Pilot Program of the Knowledge Innovation Project, has launched the CAS
Forum on Innovation Strategy. Deputy Minister Long Yongtu of the Ministry
of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation delivered the first speech at
the forum on March 2, which was entitled " The Development and Effects
of Globalization of World Economy". One month later, Mr. Xie Zhenhua, Minister
of the State Environmental Protection Administration, spoke on environmental
protection. Professor Erling Norrby, Secretary-General of the Swedish Royal
Academy, became the latest speaker of the forum. His topic was "Century
of Nobel Prizes"”
Lectures will be held once a month at the forum. CAS will invite speakers as visiting professors of the CAS Forum on Innovation Strategy and confer on them medals and certificates. |
| The first session of the Zhongguancun Youth Forum on Innovation was convened at the CAS Institute of Acoustics. CAS President Lu Yongxiang delivered the key-note presentation on the trends of science and technology in the 21st century and the historical responsibilities of the young. Echoing the words by the former CAS president Professor Zhou Guangzhao, President Lu pointed out that history has proved that key discoveries are not necessarily made under favorable physical conditions, that in the advancement of science, the key is the spirit of innovation, and that much | innovative work has been achieved by the young. A case in point was Mr. Zou Chenglu, who was only 29 years old when he returned from abroad and participated in research of synthesis of insulin. Speeches at the Zhongguancun Youth Innovation Forum will concentrate on the trends of modern science and technology and their effects on politics, economy and culture, frontiers and prospects of different disciplines, introduction of new achievements of the Knowledge Innovation Project and problems hindering breakthroughs in innovation. Participants will mainly be young scientists in and outside CAS. |
| CAS recently held a symposium on the strategies of "High technology and action in Western China" at Lanzhou. Participants put forward valuable suggestions on the environment, natural resources and for high technology in the development of West China. Specifically they touched on such issues as the extraction, transportation, transformation and application of oil and gas resources and their fine chemical products; natural medicines, chemical and biochemical engineering technology; environmental protection, control of ecological environment, and comprehensive management of garbage; improvement of the structure of energy sources; water-saving agriculture, strategies of agricultural chemistry and information technological systems; processing and value-adding application of agricultural and side-line products; exploration and application of salt lake resources; exploration and comprehensive application of mineral resources, and non-ferrous metals. |
| An
article entitled "Suggestions to Speed Up Development of West China in
the Beginning of the 21st Century" was collected in Report on Science Advancement
recently published by CAS for the year of 2000. In the article, the Division
of Earth Sciences of the Academy put forth 10 policy suggestions to promote
the development of the western area, involving development of education,
reform of the science management system, and speeding up of the construction
of telecommunications. The specialists point out that the essential difference
between East and West China lies in knowledge, information, education,
technology and management systems.
Specifically the suggestions deal with accelerating the development of various forms of educational and enlarging knowledge absorbing capacity of the whole population; promoting the reform of the science and technology management system and elevating innovative ability; speeding up the construction of telecommunications; providing basic medical care for all residents; encouraging the ethnic minorities to practice family planning; enlarging employment; carrying out anti-poverty plans; saving water resources to keep up sustained development; protecting the environment and strengthening ecological construction; and making strategic adjustment in the development of resources and industries. |
| CAS President Lu Yongxiang and Vice President Chen Yiyu held talks with Governor Cheng Andong of Shaanxi Province and Deputy Governors Guo Kun and Li Chongan of Gansu Province respectively on cooperation for the development of the western region. The Academy has long been attaching great importance to cooperation with the localities to promote the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements. It"s learned that new efforts will be made to promote the construction of infrastructure, protection of ecological environment, adjustment of the industrial structure and industrialization of high-tech achievements, continuous development of education to make contributions to the development of the economy and society in the two provinces. |
| A nanometer-level superfine
active zinc oxide production line with an annual capacity of 3,000 tons
has been commissioned in Shaanxi Province. The innovative project, which
the Academy conducted by using high-tech to develop resources in the western
region, has not only elevated China's research of nanometer materials to
the state-of-the-art level, but also promoted the exploitation of mineral
resources and development of concerned industries in Ankang Prefecture
of Shaanxi Province. It has also provided a successful example for local
enterprises in transformation of industrial management, reorganization
of assets and structural adjustment.
Ceramic bathtubs, salt-glazed bricks and ornamental devices with nanometer zinc oxide additives is self clean without brushing, and textiles made with nanometer zinc oxide, such as towels and shoe-pads, are germicidal. Nanometer zinc oxide can be used in various fields of the national economy. Xuyang County in Ankang Prefecture abounds with zinc mineral resources. Shaanxi-CAS Xunyang Fine Chemical Materials Co. Ltd. adopts the NPP technique, which is an achievement made by the CAS Institute of Chemical Metallurgy, and turns out state-of-the-art products with prices lower than those of foreign made ones. |
| The construction of the Lanzhou Heavy Ion Research Facility Cooling Storage Ring (HIRFL-CSR) - a key mega-science project of the nation's Ninth Five-Year Plan - has been formally launched, which indicates that China has made fresh progress in the frontier of nuclear science at the turn of the new century. With an investment of 300 million yuan, HIRFL-CSR will provide various types of high quality, high current and a wide energy range of stable nuclear beam, radioactive nuclear beam, highly-ionized heavy ionic beam and polarized beam, catering to the demand of multidisciplinary, high-standard and high-accuracy scientific experiment. The project will also facilitate the nation's development of new and high technologies of electron cooling, accumulation of heavy ionic beam, ultra-thin internal target, ultra-high vacuum, ion source of high-current and highly-stripping electron cyclotron resonance, fast tracking control, fast alternating magnetic field and beam current diagnosis. |
| Dr. Yang Chiming, an overseas Chinese scholar, has recently published in detail his newly-built theory on the causing mechanisms of mad calf disease (MCD) for the first time in Beijing, unveiling the mystery of the cause to MCD that has puzzled scientists for a whole century. Dr. Yang is Director of the Institute of Life and Health, California University, San Diego. In his collaboration with the Institute of Chemistry, CAS, he boldly advanced the theoretical hypothesis that the long-lived free radicals in the MCD protein be the sub-virus to MCD. He believed that the most likely sub-virus in the MCD protein should be the free radicals in the MCD protein as a result of the oxidation of protein. The role of oxygen and free radicals in MCD had been almost completely unknown. Dr. Yang's theory on protein free radicals in MCD has drawn wide attention from both home and abroad. It may open up a new direction for research on genes, protein, life and disease. |
| In 1992, the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics set up in Zhouzhuang, Jiangsu Province, an S&T enterprise - Hukun Institute of Photo-Electronics. Since then, Kony Company, which integrates manufacturing, education and research, and Suzhou Nicera Company, which makes use of foreign capital, have been successively set up. Suzhou Nicera Company ranks as the second largest firm in the world market with last year’s production of 80 million photo-electronic sensors used in cameras. A famous Japanese sensor company, eyeing the brilliant prospects of Zhouzhuang, has launched an enterprise with an investment of US$40 million. The industrial base of sensors in Zhouzhuang has snowballed. China Sciences Holdings Co., the CAS Shanghai Branch and the Kunshan municipal government signed in 1998 a protocol to build in Zhouzhuang the "China Sciences-Kunshan High-Tech Science Park".”. The CAS Xinjiang Branch has decided to implement its project of heat-sensitive sensors in Zhouzhuang, and the CAS Hefei Branch will also move their pressure-sensitive sensor plant to Zhouzhuang. |
| The Sino-US Joint Open Lab for Digital Simulation of Marine Ecosystem Dynamics has been founded in the Institute of Oceanography in Qingdao. Deputy Director of the Institute Prof. Sun Song was appointed Director on the Chinese side of the laboratory while Prof. Chen Changsheng from the Institute of Marine Science, Georgia University, USA became Director of the American side. The objectives of the Joint Lab are to build up a bridge for cooperation and academic exchange between Chinese and American marine scientists, to introduce advanced technologies in marine ecosystem dynamics from the USA and develop technologies applicable to China, to provide a research base open to universities and institutes, to undertake scientific projects in the field of marine ecosystem dynamics in China, and to train post graduates jointly and promote the returning of overseas scholars to China so that they could serve the country 's marine undertaking in a better way. |
| The Key Lab of Beam Control under the State "863" Program was founded at the Chengdu Institute of Photo-Electronics. The objective of the Lab is to build a first-rate research center and educational base in the discipline of beam control in China. It will fulfill research assignments under the "863" Program on the one hand, and conduct basic, forward-looking research on the other, paying attention to technical innovation and discipline building. The Lab is a joint project of the State "863" Program and the Academy. In 1999, it became one of the first key laboratories that were eligible to conduct the Pilot Program of the CAS Knowledge Innovation Project. |
| The Engineering Research Center of Leather Chemical Materials has been established recently at the Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry. |
| Professor Chen Yiyu, Vice President of the CAS, has reached consensus with the Institute of Oceanography and the officials of the Qingdao Municipality on the establishment of the Marine Biotechnology Engineering Center under the Academy in the framework of the Pilot Program of the Knowledge Innovation Project. The Center will unite all resources of the Academy involved in research and development of marine biotechnology to make creative and significant contributions to the development and transfer of technology in the area. The Qingdao Municipal Government has responded positively, regarding it as an opportunity to develop the city's marine industry and to transform the city's advantages in science and technology to industrialization. |
| The CAS Joint Center for Astro-Geodynamics has been announced by CAS Vice-President Xu Zhihong at a recent ceremony. Astro-Geodynamics is a forefront subject which emerged in the 1970s as a result of the intercross and interfusion of astronomy and geo-science. Since the beginning of the 1980s, a nationwide observation network comprising modern space observation apparatuses such as SLR, VLBI and GPS has been set up with Shanghai Observatory as the center. In collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Geodesy and Geoscience (WIGG) and Tongji University, the Center has achieved a series of internationally known accomplishments in such areas as the observation of changes in Earth rotation, the forecast of El Nino, the study on sea level changes, the measurement of modern diastrophism in China and the precise orbiting of satellites, which has established China's position in the International Cooperation Program of Asia Pacific Space Geo-dynamics. |
| A delegation of five headed by H.E. Morel, French Ambassador to China, has recently visited the Institute of Metallurgy in Shenyang. Ambassador Morel praised the Institute as one of the most authoritative research institutions in China and said he was delighted to see that the cradle of science and technology in China had been working well with its cooperative partners in France. He positively responded to Director Ye Hengqiang's proposal on the establishment of a Sino-France joint laboratory of material science. In the meantime, he made it a point that the joint laboratory should place equal stress upon basic and applied research, and involve the industrial community to facilitate the transfer of research results. French science officials present added that, on the basis of cooperation, attention should be paid to the exchange of scientists and engineers and the enhancement of academic communications among scholars of the two countries. They welcome more Chinese scholars to conduct research or pursue degrees in France. The Ambassador heard a report by the director of the Beijing Office of French FRAMATOM Company cooperating with the Institute and visited the Special Environment Materials Laboratory and the State Key Laboratory of Fast-Concreting Non-equilibrium Alloy. The ambassador said that he was deeply impressed by the accomplishments achieved through cooperation between Chinese and French scholars. His visit has deepened his understanding of the Institute and laid a good foundation for further cooperation of both sides. |
| At the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific International Cooperation Program of Space Geo-dynamics (APSG) held recently, participants from 14 countries and regions, including the USA, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, the Republic of Korea, China, unanimously agreed upon the establishment of the Central Bureau and an integrated data center of APSG in Shanghai Observatory. Almost at the same time, a research proposal on the diastrophism of the Asia Pacific region submitted by the Observatory on behalf of APSG was formally adopted by NASA. APSG is a major international cooperation program initiated by CAS Member Ye Shuhua in 1996, involving scientists from a dozen countries and regions and aiming at studying the diastrophism of the Asia Pacific region, the change of the sea level and the mechanisms of volcano eruptions and earthquakes. The program has since organized four translocations of the Asia Pacific region by GPS and VLBI, detecting for the first time in the world the retroaction of velocity changes of the Earth rotation against the oceans and the velocity field of diastrophism of the region. These results are of particular importance to the prediction of natural disasters in the Asia Pacific region and the conservation of the environment. At the 3rd APSG Annual Meeting, CAS Member Ye Shuhua was re-elected Chairwoman and Professor Huang Cheng was elected Director-General of the Central Bureau. |
| CAS sent a timely mission of two research professors from the Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment to make an on-the-spot investigation in the disaster-hit area in Venezuela where a rarely seen catastrophic debris flow had occurred. They were the first batch of foreign experts who had access to the spot for five times in succession. In accordance with an agreement of cooperation between the two sides, the Academy will form another technical team for post-disaster rehabilitation to conduct disaster reduction planning, key debris flow channels investigation, disaster prevention project designing and related theoretical research jointly with its Venezuelan counterpart. |
| The Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry has contracted with EIL of UK in registering a company named GENEMEDIX PCL in London by providing five key technologies. GENEMEDIX PCL has been listed on the stock market in London with a total of 87 million shares, each valued at 0.9 pound sterling. The Institute holds 20% of the total shares, and is the registrant of the property right for the five technologies-related engineering vaccines. Thanks to the smooth operation of the company from the outset, the market value of its shares has increased almost three times. |
| The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Series (Fifth Volume), compiled by Professors Sun Honglie and Zheng Du, both Members of CAS, and published by the Guangdong S&T Publishing House, has stood out to win this year’s National Publication Prize – the top prize for publications of the country. It was strictly, carefully and fairly chosen among more than 1800 titles of publications submitted by 430 domestic publishing houses at an appraising committee made up of 63 experts and scholars. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Series (Fifth Volume) comprehensively and systematically displays the latest achievements of projects of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau research. |
| At the press conference where National Natural Atlas of The People's Republic of China was inaugurated, Professor Liao Ke, the chief compiler, introduced the Atlas as a large-scale comprehensive scientific reference atlas representing the nation's highest level, and fully summarizing the country's 50 years of integrated scientific surveys in the fields of geo-science, bio-science and environmental science, data accumulated through long years of observation by different field stations of meteorology, hydrology, seismology and oceanography, together with thousands of years' accumulation of documents and archaeological data. It presents a comprehensive and systematic demonstration of the country's complex natural conditions and rich natural resources, and illustrates the formation and evolutionary laws of the country's natural environment and the distribution of nation's various natural disasters, unfavorable natural elements, and efforts for the prevention and cure of natural disasters. The Atlas also serves as an important information source for the nation's Digital Earth. |
1. CAS President Lu Yongxiang and Dr. Carty (right), Chairman of the Canadian National Research Council, shake hands after they have signed a cooperation agreement between CAS and NRC.
- New technique of ultra-short pulse high frequency laser series of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics wins second prize of the National Prize for Technology and Invention for the year 1999, and secures 5 invention patents and 4 practical technology patents.
- Original evaluation method for sustainable development - The Academy has proposed for the first time the "Balance sheet for abilities of sustainable development" to evaluate the socio-economic qualities of a country or a region, which has been successfully applied in recently published Report on China's Sustainable Development Strategy. The over-all abilities of sustainable development are discussed in the perspectives of the subsistence support system, the development support system, the environment support system, the social support system and the intelligence support system.
- Redefinition on cellular canceration model - Dr. Wu Lijun from the Institute of Plasma Physics, who studies ion beam biotechnology, has carried out an experiment using one single ?-particle to illuminate nuclei and cytoplasm separately, and has made important discoveries in the redefinition of the canceration model. The discoveries are of great significance in protecting people against radon radiation, which exists everywhere, and in the treatment and cure of cancer. The work has received great attention and has won the CAS Presidential Special Scholarship.
- CAS Hi-Tech Industrialization Conference convened in Ningbo – The largest ever of its kind sponsored by the Academy in collaboration with Zhejiang Province, the gathering drew thousands of central and local government officials, scientists and entrepreneurs, and saw the initiation of technology transfer of over a thousand research discoveries.
- Countermeasures against sand and dust storms – Twelve sand or dust storms have ravaged large areas of China this spring. A specialist group headed by CAS Members Ye Duzheng and Niu Jifan from the Academic Division of Earth Sciences has submitted to the State Council a report which, after analyzing the causes, advances three suggestions: to conduct large scale afforestation and grass growing to reinstate natural vegetation, to attach importance to ecological construction in the development of the western regions and to establish monitoring and early warning systems for sand and dust storms.