Hu Jintao Present at General Assemblies of CAS and CAE Members

The 14th General Assembly of CAS and the 9th General Assembly of CAE opened at the Great Hall of the People on June 23 morning. Chinese President Hu Jintao was present at the ceremony and delivered an important speech. The ceremony was chaired by CAE President XU Kuangdi. CAS President LU Yongxiang made an opening speech.

In his speech, Hu Jintao emphasized, “China is now at the key stage of reform and development, where both the opportunities and the challenges are unprecedented, and there are more opportunities than challenges. The world has witnessed that the science and technology advance by leaps and bounds, the innovation and creation flourish with each passing day, world science and technology are pregnant with new important breakthroughs, the role of knowledge in the development of economic society is increasingly prominent, the position of scientific and technological competition among the competitions of comprehensive national power is striking day by day, and science and technology has become one major driving force to support and guide economic development and the progress in human civilization. In the world nowadays, the one who has grasped the advanced science and technology will have the initiative in economic and social development.” Meanwhile, he also stressed, “the tasks to construct an innovative country should be regarded as one important strategic choice in future, and all the people should be more conscious and firm in breaking paths of autonomous innovation with Chinese characteristics.”

With joint efforts of all members, the 14th General Assembly of CAS had witnessed the successful completion of all the agendas and concluded in Beijing on June 27. Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS and Executive Chairman of the Presidium of CAS Academic Divisions, made the closing speech.

CAS Reception Held for Its Foreign Members

On the occasion of the 14th General Assembly of CAS Members, CAS held a solemn reception for its foreign members on June 22. The foreign members attending the reception included Prof. Chen Ning Yang (Chinese-American physicist) and his wife, Prof. Shing-Tung Yau (Chinese-American mathematician), Prof. Norman N. Li (Chinese-American Chemist) and his wife and Prof. Samvel S. Grigorian, Scientist in Mechanics from Russian, as well as Prof. Chenming Calvin Hu and his wife.

Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS, conferred the Certificate of CAS Foreign Membership on Prof. Chenming Calvin Hu, who was newly elected member of CAS in 2007.

Lu Yongxiang Meets Hoffmann

On June 19, Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS, met with and entertained Dr. Hoffmann, President of the French Academy of Sciences and his entourage. During the meeting, the two parties emphatically exchanged views regarding exchange of young talents, sponsoring of high-level workshops, etc. Prof. Jean-Francois Bach, Life Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, Alain Fishcher, Academician and other officials for science and technology from the French Embassy to China as well as relevant leaders from CAS attended the meeting.

Lu Yongxiang Allows Interview with Nature Materials

Nature Materials published a special issue on science in China on July 25, giving special emphasis to the development status quo of the Chinese material science and to the driving role of rapid economic development in China on the S&T circles in Hong Kong, etc. The issue also carried in full a special interview with Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS. The article was entitled “Leader of Innovation in China”.

In the special interview, Lu Yongxiang answered questions raised by the journalist in terms of development of CAS, promotion of the knowledge innovation program, cooperation between CAS and scientific and technological organizations at home and abroad, and talent cultivation measures taken by CAS, etc.

Shuguang Supercomputer to Have First Contract

It is reported on June 24 that, the Institute of Computing Technology, CAS and its Shuguang Corporation, the leading brand of the Chinese servers, and Shanghai Supercomputer Center jointly held the signing ceremony for Shuguang 5000 to settle down in Shanghai, symbolizing that the Chinese users will possess the supercomputer with a computing capacity of hundreds thousand billion times that is made in China soon. At this point, Shanghai Supercomputer Center has become one of the largest general computing platforms in the world.

According to relevant information, Shuguang 5000 to settle down in Shanghai Supercomputer Center will possess a double-precision floating-point computing capacity of two hundred thousand billion times. Such speed not only breaks the record of high-performance computation in China, but also ranks among the top ones in the general supercomputer field in the world. In addition to super computation capacity, Shuguang 5000 supercomputer features wholly independent intellectual property, super high density, extreme high performance, extra low power dissipation, utmost extensive application, etc.