Joint Statement On Sustainable Development Made By Sino-US Academies
A Joint Statement on Sustainability ( see attached full text) was issued in Beijing on January 16, 1997 by the officers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Citing major resource indicators showing the worsening of the environment, the joint statement warned that "the need for improvement is urgent" and called on scientists of the two countries to work in partnership for the benefit of both countries and for the whole world.

The statement came as a result of a two-day meeting held from Jan. 15 to 16, 1997 at Xiyuan Hotel between the officers of the two academies. Prof. Zhou Guangzhao, president of CAS, and Prof. Bruce Alberts, president of NAS co-chaired the meeting which was attended by all the high-ranking officers of the two academies. Primary issues for discussion were the changing environment for research, sustainable development and strengthening the ties between the scientists of the two countries. The officers of the two academies projected further academy-to-academy collaboration, the forging of new ties among the young scientists of the two countries, and the continuation of the project " Population and Land Use", a collaborative project between the Chinese, U.S. and Indian Academies of Sciences with McCarthur Foundation funding.

This is the fourth such regular meeting, which was intended to provide a forum for the officers of the two world-famous academies to discuss the world's major current scientific, technological and science policy issues. The first such meeting was held in 1984 in Washington, DC, USA.

Chinese Academy of Sciences - U.S. National Academy of Sciences Officers' Joint Statement on Sustainability
The defining challenge for the 21st century is achieving a sustainable, desirable life for the world's people. China is the world's most populous country and is experiencing extraordinarily rapid economic growth, and the United States is both the world's largest economy and also its most prolific consumer of resources. Our two countries, therefore, have a special responsibility and opportunity in working together to apply science and technology in achieving the goal of sustainability, and consequently an improved management of well over a third of the world's resources.

The need for improvement is urgent, since all resource indicators -- changes in the atmosphere, loss of topsoil, loss of forests, the extinction of organisms -- have moved sharply and continuously downward during the second half of the twentieth century, while both world population and levels of consumption continue to rise. Globally, these trends are not sustainable over the long run.

With the implementation of wise policies, China has the potential to be innovative in its use of science and technology to improve the quality of life of its people in the context of its own unique and developing market forces. Indeed, China must be innovative in forging its own path to sustainability, for there is clearly no comprehensive model or system existing elsewhere that would be fully suitable for China, with its unique population and environmental conditions.

In the United States, consumption patterns are changing and will continue to change. Attaining sustainability domestically will require alterations in lifestyle, in industrial processes, in the types and amounts of resources used, and in the nature and quantity of the products that are manufactured. In both the United States and China, renewable energy, energy conservation, sustainable productivity in agriculture, and the efficient use of water are among the many important common issues.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences already are working together in applying science and technology to address major issues of sustainability. We recommit ourselves here in Beijing to enhancing our partnership for the benefit of both countries and that of the world at large.

Prof. Zhou Gives Lectures in Hong Kong
Invited by several Hong Kong universities and institutions, including the China Science and Society Development Organization, Prof. Zhou Guangzhao gave lectures in Hong Kong on Dec. 16 and 19, 1996. Prof. Zhou is President of CAS and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology. His lectures were warmly received by the audience, which included participants from business, research, industry, and education communities.

In his speech titled "History, Current Situation and Prospects of Science and Technology of China", Prof. Zhou reviewed the splendid history of ancient science and technology of China, summed up the reasons why such a basis failed to evolve into modern science, discussed the advancement of modern science in China and the role of returned students, and pointed out that since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after China began to be open to the outside world, science and technology of China has began to take on international importance. He also stated that China's current conditions offer an unprecedented opportunity for the development of science and technology. He believed that with the favorable environment and rich intellectual resources, the science and technology community of China will achieve first-class successes and nurture first-class scientists, thus contributing to further economic progress.

First Synthesis of Strange Nuclide Gd-135
The new nuclide Gd-135, which has strange decay properties, was first synthesized by the Institute of Modern Physics in Lanzhou. This achievement brings the synthesis and research of new nuclides in China into an important new frontier: the proton dropline nucleoid region.

Gd-135 is very difficult to synthesize and its lifetime is very short, which results in great difficulties in its separation and discrimination. Led by Xu Shuwei, the research group at the Institute used the S-32 ion beam of 170 MeV, supplied by the heavy ion accelerator of Lanzhou to bombard the Gd-148 target to form Gd-135. Instead of measuring the directly emitted protons or the delayed emission protons separated by the linear isotopic element separator as foreign scientists have done, they applied the Helium jet quick band transmission technique to following the (-ray emitted by Sm-134 after the emission of protons, and made multi-coincidence measurements. The sensitivity was greatly increased and Gd-135 was separated and discriminated. Its half-life was measured to be (1.1(0.2) s; its strange decay property--delayed emission proton energy spectrum was observed and the delayed emission proton composition was estimated to be 2%.

Prediction Error of National Grain Production Below 3%
Prof. Chen Xikang et al. from the CAS Institute of Systems Science first began the prediction of national grain production in 1980. Now the prediction can be made over six months ahead of time with a prediction error below 3% and an average prediction error only about 1.4% of the total production amount.

To achieve this result, Prof. Chen and his colleagues have used a new input-occupancy-output technique. This improves on the "input-output" technique proposed by W. Leontie, who won the Nobel Prize in 1973. The input-output technique has the disadvantages that it only concentrates on the relationship between input (intermediate and preliminary) and output, but not between occupancy (natural resources, fixed assets, circulation capital and labor) and output. First proposed by Prof. Chen at the 9th International Input-output Congress in 1989, the new technique has been favorably received.

The main characteristic of agriculture is that the production factors, such as fertilizer and farm manure, follow the diminishing return law. Using systematic methods, Prof. Chen and his colleagues obtained a predictive equation through long-time studies and a great deal of calculation. They suggested that mathematical planning methods should be used in the process of prediction to make the predictive equation fit the real-life data and to increase the accuracy of predictions.

Research efforts during the past 16 years have indicated that this technique could correctly predict whether national grain production would be a bumper crop, a normal one or a weak one. This has helped the departments concerned with prediction of grain production amounts.

China's First 13.7 mm Wave Radio Telescope
China's first 13.7 mm wave radio telescope passed appraisal by a group of specialists headed by Prof. Wang Shouguan, Member of CAS.

Through 10 years' hard work, a group of scientists led by Prof. Xu Zhicai from the Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory accomplished this project.

Millimeter wave astronomy is a completely new scientific field, which lays the foundation for the research of star formation, observation and study of evolution of stars and galaxies.

The 13.7 mm wave radio telescope is a system engineering project which requires modern technology. With an antenna aperture of 13.7 mm and a working wavelength of 2.6 mm, the radio telescope has the shortest wave band and is one of the most difficult devices yet made in China. Its receiver system can meet the requirements of observation of a large number of astronomical objects with weak signals.

Several technologies developed in this project have been applied in practice, including the radiometer, the phaselock low-noise receiver and the spectral line analysis technique. Some of these have been turned into products.

Pure Crystalline Belt Found in Glaciers in China
In July 1996, a Sino-American Ice-Core Survey Team discovered pure crystalline belts in glaciers in China. The team was headed by Prof. Yao Tandong of the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology. They found the belts at the 7,000-m altitude on Mt. Xixiabangma. This discovery added to our understanding of ice-forming belts in glaciers in China.

Mt. Xixiabangma is one of fourteen mountains in the world higher than 8,000 meters. The team of 21 people took two ice cores on the 7,000 m ice-snow platform with a hand drill; measured the ice-snow thickness of the great platform of Dasuopu Glacier above 7000 m with radar techniques; obtained temperature data for the ice layers; collected samples of river water and ice-snow at different altitudes, and made many climatic and meteorological measurements in the surrounding area. They also set up an observational network of the glacial surface matter equilibrium.

Allied Research Centers by CAS and Hong Kong University
Three agreements were signed in Hong Kong on Dec. 16, 1996 between CAS and Hong Kong University. According to the agreements, the two sides are going to set up an allied research center of Chinese language cognitive science, an allied research center of transgenosis study of animals, and a liaison office of Hong Kong University in CAS.

The first research center will be stationed in Beijing and Hong Kong, undertaking research work on the essence, application and science and technology development of the behavioral science of the Chinese language across a range of disciplines, including computer science, cognitive science, neurology, psychology and linguistics. The second research center will undertake research projects in three fields, namely, molecular embryology, heterotransplantation basis, and using transgenosis animals as bioreactors.

National Photoelectronic Technology Center
During eight years of development, the National Plotoelectronic Technology Center of the Institute of Semiconductors has made great progress.

This Center is engaged in the research of new photoelectronic devices and integrated techniques based on the quantum trap structure of III-V group semiconductors, using advanced technological equipment introduced from abroad.

The Center has made progress in many areas: the growth of MBE and MOCVD materials with ultralattice quantum trap structure; high-precision hyperfine photoetching, optical film preparation; dry etching of semiconductors, metals and insulating films; alignment electron-beam exposure techniques; and measurement of X-ray twin diffraction of materials with quantum trap structure. They have also successfully developed a DFB laser device, a surface emission layer device, and LN conductors. Of these, the DFB strain quantum trap laser device won the first prize of the CAS Science and Technology Progress Award.

Work is also being done at the Center on blue light devices, high-speed lithium niobate modulators, fiber gratings, and photoelectronic integration (functional and column), among others.

LICCRE Becomes an Open Lab
As approved by the expert team, the Laboratory of Ice Core and Cold Regions Environment will welcome glaciologists both from China and abroad to conduct research in the lab. This lab was set up in 1991, and is the only one of its kind in China.

LICCRE has made great achievements. Three projects of the LICCRE have won the CAS Natural Science Award. A total of 8 monographs and 268 papers (34 in international journals) have been published. Lab staff have been invited to give lectures at a dozen international conferences. Some of their influential research results include the Trans-Antarctic Glacial Study; the Study of the Nelson Ice Cap in Antarctica, and the Ice Core Study of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.

LICCRE is becoming a research institution in which middle-aged and young scientists such as Qin Dahe and Yao Tandong play a primary role. A systematic monitoring, sampling, measuring and analyzing system has been established, and a seven story building has been constructed with 4,620m2 of floor space. This building contains laboratory and office space, as well as apartments for visiting scholars.

High Charge Electronic Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source
Designed and made by the Institute of Modern Physics, China's first high charge electronic cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source passed an appraisal held by CAS in Lanzhou.

Being the most advanced high charge ion source, the ECR ion source has characteristics of high beam intensity, low energy dispersion and beam emittance and long operating period. It can work steadily and repetitively, and can provide high charge ionic beams of all gas elements and most solid elements.

Operation of this ion source in the past several years has greatly improved the properties and efficiency of the heavy ion accelerator in Lanzhou. As an independent piece of equipment, the ion source provides unprecedented experimental conditions for the study of highly-ionized state atomic physics. An experimental group from a famous Chinese institute has used this ion source effectively to study 13 experimental systems using beams of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, etc. in an effort to develop new short wave and soft X-ray laser sources.

66 New CAS Young Research Fellows
By special permission of CAS, 66 young scholars became research fellows. The average age of these scholars is 36, and the youngest is 28. 68% of them are doctoral degree holders, 29% are Master's degree holders and 50% are directors or deputy-directors of research labs.

Among these scholars, three have won science and technology awards at the national level. Dr. Huang Heyan from the Institute of Computing Technology, one of the main designers of "the Intelligence Machine Translating System" project of the "863 Program", was a first prize winner of the CAS Science and Technology Progress Award and the National Science and Technology Progress Award. 13% of these scholars won the CAS Science and Technology Progress Award and six of them won the Prize for Young Scientists of CAS. Six were selected into the "100 Talents Program". It is reported that in these 10 years more than 1,600 young scholars have been promoted to the level of high-rank researchers by special permission of CAS.

"Western Light" Training Program
In the next 5 years, CAS will train 100 groups of young scientists for the western part of China, promoting a high research level and competitiveness. CAS will allocate 10,000,000 RMB for this program.

This program aims to help research institutes in west China to solve the problem of shortage of talent, and to encourage young scientists to work there. 2,000,000 RMB is earmarked each year to support about 20 research groups concentrating on projects that can help local governments overcome difficulties and solve problems in their economic development.

CAS Key Doctoral Training Bases Established
Appraisal of the first batch of CAS key doctoral training bases has been completed. Eleven units were selected from 39 research institutes and the University of Science and Technology of China.

These units are: the Institute of Physics, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, the Institute of Geology, the Institute of Biophysics, the Institute of Computational Mathematics and the University of Science and Technology of China (mathematics, physics, mechanics, dynamics, and engineering thermophysics).

Book Donation from C.J. Smiley
Prof. C.J. Smiley's book donation ceremony was held at the 45th anniversary of the CAS Nanjing Institute of Geopalaeontology.

Prof. Charles Jack Smiley was one of the most prestigious paleontologists in America before his death on January 1st, 1996. He died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 71.

Prof. Smiley was always friendly to China, and always believed that China's geopaleontological data played an important role in the establishment of global patterns. For the convenience of Chinese geopalaeontologists looking up original English references, he decided to present the Nanjing Institute of Geopalaeontology with his own personal collection of 6,000 books in this field. Mrs. Smiley and their son came to China this time to fulfill this last wish of his.

The photo shows Mrs. Smiley gladly accepting flowers at the ceremony from Prof. Mu Xinan, Director of the Nanjing Institute of Geopalaeontology.

A Spectacular Phenomenon of the Century --Simultaneous Appearance of Total Solar Eclipse and Comet
Experts from the Chinese Astronomical Society announced in Beijing on November 29, 1996 that people will simultaneously see a total solar eclipse and a comet in Mohe, Heilongjiang Province, on March 9, 1997.

This will be the last total solar eclipse to appear in China in this century. Starting somewhere between Biysk, Russia and Altay, China at 08:44, it will pass Mongolia, northeastern China and the East Siberia Sea, and finally terminate in the Arctic at 10:04. In the region north of Altay and in Mohe, people will see the total eclipse, and in other areas in China, people may see a partial solar eclipse.

During the eclipse, it will be very spectacular in Mohe. In the dark sky, people will see stars glittering, and then a comet, the Hale-Bopp, will sweep through the sky.

According to experts only three such phenomena have ever been recorded: in Egypt on May 17, 1882, in Brazil on May 20, 1947, and in Nairobi on November 1, 1948.

CAS Member Prof. Ai Guoxiang will lead a team to carry out on-the-spot observations.

Attention Paid to IPR Protection
CAS institutes have been encouraged to engage in joint research and development with their foreign counterparts. The cooperative project entitled Studies of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Herbs co-sponsored by the Japanese Toray Institute of Basic Research and the Chengdu Institute of Biology is to develop new types of medicine from traditional Chinese medicinal herbs. The initiative started in 1990 and with two extensions will continue until 1998. Both sides have paid great attention to the protection of intellectual property rights. The cooperation agreement prescribes that achievements obtained through joint research and development be shared by both sides and that if the product is marketed by one side, the other side will have rights to 3-5% of the total sales volume. The patent fee is to be borne by the Chinese side if the patent is applied for in China, and by the Japanese side should the application be made in Japan or in countries other than Japan and China. Four patents have been applied for during the six years of cooperation, two in Japan and two in China, and two more are under consideration.

Similar approaches have been adopted to protect intellectual property rights in other joint research and development projects. Examples include technical and commercial cooperation on a new type of circulating fluidized bed combustion boiler by Mitsoi Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics; cooperative animal and clinical experiments on potential medicine production techniques by the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry with venture capital provided by foreign parties; and cooperation on abstraction of effective components from Chinese medicinal herbs by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and its Japanese counterparts.

China Mineral Resources Exploration Research Center
With full support from the State Science and Technology Commission, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, CAS and Shinshu University of Japan signed an agreement in 1995 on establishing the China Mineral Resources Exploration Research Center in Beijing. The Japanese government has provided the Center with 500 million yen to promote academic exchanges between scholars from the two countries and to procure new instruments and equipment. Making full use of basic scientific research techniques acquired in geology, petrology, mineralogy, economic geology and geochemistry, the Center will be devoted to research on the chemical and isotopic composition characteristics of ore-forming fluids and their metallogenic ages. Geochemical methods will be used to detect existing metallic mineral reserves, to aid in their classification, and to determine the potential for exploration and exploitation.

Prof. Tu Guangzhi, Member of CAS, is the chief scientist on the Chinese side, and his Japanese counterpart is Professor Emeritus Kuroda Yoshimasu from Shinshu University. Since its establishment the Center has attracted young scientists from both at home and abroad. The Center will serve as an important base for China and Japan to carry out long-term cooperative research in related fields and to train senior personnel.

Chen Runsheng Wins the Kotani Prize
The 15th International CODATA Conference ( held September 29 - October 3, 1996 in Tsukuba, Japan ) awarded the Kotani Prize in biology to Prof. Chen Run-sheng for his outstanding contributions to genome informatics and 3-D structural simulations of protein. This recognition is an inspiration for the Chinese scientist and his colleagues in theoretical biology.

Prof. Chen Runsheng is Director of the Department of Protein Engineering of the Institute of Biophysics. Since his graduation from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1964, Prof. Chen has devoted himself to theoretical research on protein structure and function and DNA sequence analysis. His research interests include Monte Carlo simulations on aqueous solution of biological molecules, molecular dynamic simulations of protein and DNA conformations, energy band structure studies of biopolymers, ab-initio calculation of the interaction potentials between water and zwitterions of amino acids, prediction of protein structures by neural network methods, and application of methods and concepts of cryptography, fractal dimension theory and complexity theory to the studies of DNA sequence analysis. He has published more than 60 original research papers.

The Conference awarded the Kotani Prize in physics to Dr. Keith A. Berrington from Queen's University, UK and in geoscience to Dr. James L. Green from NASA, USA.

Prof. Nan Rendong Becomes IAA/SETI Member
On October 15, 1996 Dr. G.E.Mueller, President of the International Academy of Astronautics, informed Prof. Nan Rendong, Deputy Director of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory(BAO), that he has been appointed as Member of the IAA Committee on Search for an Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) for a three-year term.

Prof. Nan majored in astrophysics and obtained his Ph.D. in 1987, and has been a professor in BAO since 1992. From 1980 to 1985, Nan participated in a major instrumentation project, the construction of Miyun Synthesis Radio Telescope (MSRT), and soon became an important figure in the MSRT electronic group. He started AGN studies using the very long baseline interferometer (VLBI) at Dwingeloo Observatory of the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy in 1985, played an important role in the observations of 24 compact steep spectrum sources at 50 cm, and identified or confirmed the core components in six CSSs and improved the classifications of the sample. He also contributed to the technology of VLBI data reduction, advancing a complete reduction procedure that is widely employed in Europe, Japan and China. In 1988 he established the VLBI reduction center in BAO and installed related software at Nanjing University and at the Shanghai Observatory. Nan started to lead the Large Telescope project in BAO in 1994, and in 1995 he formed the organization for promoting a LT in China and became the director of the organization.

Fruitful Cooperation in Nuclear Physics
The Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) and the Japan Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) are among the three key research centers for nuclear physics in the world using heavy-ion spiral accelerators of the same type. Since 1979, scientists of the two institutes have been working together on experiments and theories of heavy-ion physics and on applications of nuclear physics. Their cooperative efforts have included beam injection, phase measurement and beam diagnosis with a view to enhancing the running standard and beam quality of their accelerators and upgrading and improving the accelerator systems. The favorable cooperative environment helps advance their research work. IMP has made progress in the key project "Research on Synthesis of New Nuclides and Their Decaying Properties, Atomic Structures and Generation Mechanism" after two new nuclides Hf185 and Hg208 were first synthesized in 1992. Recently, IMP and Riken have concentrated on such frontier topics in nuclear physics as radioactive ion beam physics, study of new nuclides far from stability and the pre-study of the megascience project of the cooler-storage ring of the accelerator. The latter project was proposed by the two institutes separately in an effort to keep up with the international levels of accelerator research.

Xiangshan Science Conference
Prof. Xu Zhihong, Vice President of CAS, met and held talks with Dr. Carlyle B. Storm, Chairman of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC), USA. Also present were organizers of the Xiangshan Science Conference (XSC). Both sides agreed to sponsor a series of workshops on science frontiers to be attended by some of the world's first class scientists. As the first step of cooperation, GRC will recommend scholars to participate the symposia and workshops organized by XSC and will provide support.

Since its inception by SSTC and CAS in 1993, some 70 symposia have been organized at the XSC and a series of monographs published under the title of Frontiers and Future of Science. The participants, a limited number of first rate scientists of different disciplines and with different backgrounds, deliver retrospective or forward-looking reports focusing on frontier subjects or new technologies. The discussions following are informal, deep-going and unconstrained. Latest findings, achievements and developments are reviewed, key science problems and the theories and methodologies of their solutions located and analysed, new areas for growth predicted and forecasts made. The Xiangshan Science Conference has roused wide-spread interest in the scientific community and has received attention from top government officials.

Briefs
Foreign Scholars Honoured with National Awards - Professors Samuel Chao Chung Ting from MIT and Uli Schwarz from MPG are among the four foreign recipients of the International Scientific and Technological Award issued by the State towards the end of 1996 for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of science and technology in China. They were recommended by CAS and the awards were approved and conferred by SSTC.

*Visitors from Alaska - Mr. Benjamin P. Nageak, Mayor of North Slope Borough, Alaska and an accompanying delegation visited China last December. Prof. Chen Yiyu, Vice President of CAS met and talked with the guests. A second phase of their cooperative agreement is signed which will further promote joint scientific surveys in the arctic area.

*T.D. Lee Visits China - Prof. T.D. Lee, the Nobel Prize laureate, visited China in November last year. Together with a dozen accelerator specialists and physicists, Lee took part in an assessment of the ¦Ó-C factory project. Lee also attended the 17th Meeting of the PRC/US Joint Committee on High Energy Physics and the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of CCAST and BIMP. Prof. Zhou Guangzhao, President of CAS met with Prof. Lee and expressed congratulations for the latter's 70th birthday.

*Sino-Japanese Conference on Environment Science - The tenth symposium sponsored by the Japan-China Science and Technology Exchange Association of Japan and CAS was held in Tokyo last November. The theme of the conference was environmental science. A group of 15 Chinese scientists attended.

*Australian Visitors - Dr. Ian Willett, ACIAR program director, and three scientists from the CSIRO Institute of Water Resources visited the Shijiazhuang Institute of Agricultural Modernization and the Northwest Institute of Water and Soil Conservation late last November. Scientists of both sides are planning a cooperative project of water and soil conservation.

*Zhou Attended WL & TWAS Assemblies - In later November, Prof. Zhou Guangzhao attended the 13th World Lab General Assembly in Sweden and the 8th General Conference of the Third World Academy of Science in Italy. He was elected Vice President of TWAS.

*Canadian Ties - Prof. Robert Haynes, President of the Royal Society of Canada visited CAS and met with Prof. Zhou Guangzhao. Both institutions signed an agreement last summer and are set to promote their cooperative ties.

*Symposium on Ecological Engineering - The International Symposium of Ecological Engineering was recently held in Beijing with the Research Center of Ecological Environment, the Nanjing Institute of Oceanography and Limnology, and the International Society of Ecological Environment as co-sponsors. Topics discussed centred around ecological techniques of sustainable development of agriculture, protection of ecological systems and ecological planning of rural and urban areas.

*AIC Conference - The 18th Asian ISDN (Integration Service Digital Network) Council Conference was held in Beijing with some 200 scientists and technicians in attendance from China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Fifteen scientists from CAS participated. Prof. Hu Qiheng, Vice President of the China Association for Science and Technology, was chairwoman of the conference.

*Ukrainian Scientists Visit China - Academician V.I. Trefilov, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Materials of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and Prof. A.V. Chechel, Deputy Director of the Institute visited and delivered lectures in CAS institutes located in Changchun, Shenyang and Shanghai in late November.

*Italian Visitors - Prof. Dufour, Deputy Director of the Research Centre of the Ansaldo Energia Company and his colleague visited CAS and held talks with Prof. Yan Yixun, Vice President of CAS last December. Both sides reviewed their relations and discussed ways to further their cooperative efforts on fuel cells and electric vehicles.