The 15th General Assembly of the Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Held in Beijing

The 15th General Assembly of the Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was held in Beijing from June 7th to June 10th，2010.

The Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the highest national advisory body in science and technology in China and serves as an important national scientific think-tank. The General Assembly, which convenes biannually, is the supreme organization form of the Academic Divisions of CAS. There are now six academic divisions, which consist of 709 Members and 56 Foreign Members. Altogether 559 Members and 11 Foreign Members attended the Assembly.

The theme of the 15th General Assembly was to deepen our study and practice of the Scientific Development Outlook, and to thoroughly understand and implement the instructions made by the top Chinese leaders under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the ideas of the “Three Represents” in an effort to see more clearly the new trends of development in both international and domestic socio-economic progress and the new goals and new perspectives of work of the Academic Divisions, thereby to firmly uphold the scientific banner, vigorously promote the role of the national scientific think-tank with Chinese characteristics, and mobilize the Members to make greater and more contributions in building China into an innovation-oriented one in cooperation with the broad masses of the scientific and technological workers of the whole country.

On the morning of June 7th, a grand-opening ceremony was held at the Great Hall of the People for both the 15th General Assembly and the 10th General Assembly of the Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS chaired the ceremony and Xu Kuangdi, President of CAE gave an opening address. Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of PRC attended the meeting and offered an important speech. Attending the meeting were also some other state and governmental leaders including Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhou Yongkang and ministers from various departments concerned. In addition to the Members and Foreign Members who attended the meeting, over 1000 other scientists, engineers and scientific administrators also attended the meeting.

In the 1st meeting held on the afternoon of June 7th after the ceremony, Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS and Executive President of the 6th Presidium of the Academic Divisions, also Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, PRC, presented a work report on behalf of the Presidium. The title of his talk was “Lead the Frog-leap Development of China’s Science and Technology and Create a New Future for the Work of the Academic Divisions”. Zhu Daoben, Chen Yiyu, and Zhu Zuoyan also gave work reports on different aspects of the Academic Divisions respectively on behalf of the Committee for Consultation and Evaluation, the Committee for the Enforcement of Scientific Morality and the Committee for Scientific Popularization and Publication. Directors of the Academic Divisions also reported their work in the past two years to the Members concerned on June 8th.

On the morning of June 9th, an award ceremony of Tan Kah Kee Science Awards 2010 was held. It was attended by Members of both Academies. State Councilor Liu Yandong attended the ceremony and presented the certificates and medals to the 5 awardees together with President Lu Yongxiang and President Xu Kuangdi. At the end of the ceremony, Madame Liu Yandong gave a speech, in which she pointed out the importance of further study and implementation of President Hu’s ideas as reflected in his speech. Liu particularly emphasized the importance of understanding the implications of the saying that goes “Scientific spirit is the soul of science and technology”, and encouraged all the Members to advocate the truth-seeking spirit and to make continuous efforts to build China into an innovation-driven one and to facilitate the development of science and technology. The 15th General Assembly of the Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ended on June 10th. President Lu Yongxiang delivered a report entitled “Embracing the New Era of Human Knowledge-based Civilization”.

This General Assembly also saw the convening of the 2nd annual academic meeting of the Academic Divisions. Members Wang Zhizhen, Fang Jingyun, Zhan Wenlong and Chen Xiaoya each presented a comprehensive academic lecture respectively entitled “A Few Reflections and Suggestions on the Scientific Mechanisms and Policy in China”, “Global Warming and Carbon Emissions”, “Sustainable Development of Fission Energy” and “Research and Application of GMO Technologies”. Each Academic Division also held featured academic symposiums and science education activities.

During this Assembly, discussions were also held on the work plans of the Academic Divisions for the 12th Five-year period and certificates were also conferred to a few newly-elected Foreign Members. In connection to the commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Academic Divisions, activities were also organized to study the speeches given by the top Chinese leaders and officials and to provide advice and consultation to the development of academic disciplines.