newsletter-5

Professor Lu Yongxiang was born in 1942 and graduated from Zhejiang University in 1964. In 1979, he became a Scholar of Alexander von Humboldt in TH Aachen, Germany. In 1981, a doctor's degree of technology was conferred on him by TH Aachen and in 1995 an honorary doctor's degree of technology was awarded by Hongkong University of Science and Technology. In 1985, he was appointed Vice President of Zhejiang University and later became President (1988-1995). In 1993 he was nominated Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and became Executive Vice President in 1994. He was elected Member of the Third-World Academy of Sciences in 1990, Member of CAS in 1991 and Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1994. In 1986-1996 he was Vice President of the China Association for Science and Technology.

He has made important contributions in mechanical engineering, especially in the fields of fluid transfer and control and in higher engineering education. He has acquired 20 patent rights in Europe, USA and China, and published more than 250 important papers and 2 books on scientific research and engineering education. In 1997 he won the Ruddf-Diesel gold medal of Germany. The Institute of Fluid Transfer and Control which he founded in Zhejiang University, has now developed to become a State key laboratory and a doctoral station. He has trained 30 Ph.D.s, 25 masters and 5 postdoctoral associates. He is highly praised for his outstanding organizational and planning skills.

Ex-President Zhou Guangzhao, in his tenure of office, made outstanding contributions to the reform and development of CAS and to the advances of science and technology in China, and won high praise in scientific and technological circles.

Under the new president, CAS is prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Since 1978, CAS has sent about 10,000 visiting scholars and students to Japan to cooperate with their Japanese counterparts in the fields of environmental protection, desert transformation, astronomy, accelerators, observation of cosmic rays, and other areas. Excellent results have been achieved.

Since the end of the 1980s, new cooperative fields such as communication, multi-media technology and pharmaceuticals have been explored between CAS and some large-scale Japanese companies. The two sides have established joint-venture companies and institutes and jointly carried out major research and development projects, which contribute positively to the development of the science, technology and economy of both countries. Members of this Center have been playing important roles in these activities.

The Center will organize people and associations who concern themselves with Sino-Japanese exchange at nongovernmental levels, to promote mutual understanding and strengthen cooperation between the scientific, educational and entrepreneurial circles.

Prof. Lu Yongxiang, Member and President of CAS, was elected President of the Center and Prof. Wang Fusong, Member of CAS, was elected Director- General of the Center.

Beginning in 1997, the scale of the "100 Talents' Project" will be expanded from 20 to 100 people per year. This project is carried out by CAS to train young talents who have made remarkable contributions to their fields of study.

Though the scale is enlarged, the high invitation standards will be maintained. The amount of financial support will not be decreased, and project administration will still be strict.

100 projects from 75 institutes have applied to take part in the project. After the expansion, funded projects will be divided into two types: newly arising subjects, to be supported mainly by CAS; and key subjects initiated by various institutes. The young talents selected shall play important roles in key research projects and have significant project responsibility. The amount of financial support and the housing facilities offered to these young talents will be publicly announced.

Honorary Director of the Institute of Solid State Physics and Member of CAS, Prof. Ge Tingsui was recently informed by Prof. Alexander Scott, Executive Director of TMS of USA, that he was honored with the R.F. Mare Prize of TMS and was invited to its 128^th annual meeting to make a speech entitled "50-Year Study of Relaxation of Crystal Boundary''.

TMS is a united scientific organization working in the mineral, metal and material sciences in the USA. The R.F.Mare Prize is the highest prize of TMS to those who have made remarkable achievements in material science. Prof. Ge is the first Chinese and the first Asian scientist honored with the prize.

On June 10, China successfully launched its first fixed meteorological satellite-"Fengyun No.2". The core of this satellite, a multichannel scanning radiometer developed by the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, CAS, has successfully opened up its visible light, vapor and thermal infrared channels, which have been working normally. The satellite has obtained many clear pictures of the earth with visible light, vapor and thermo-infrared instrumentation.

The multichannel scanning radiometer is the central detecting instrument of the "Fengyun No. 2" satellite, and so is acturally the "eyes" of the satellite. It can monitor meteorological variation and provide real-time meteorological data for China and neighboring countries from its fixed orbit, which is 35,800 km from the earth. The resolution of its visible light images on the ground is 1.4 km, and that of the vapor (6.3 μm - 7.7μm) and thermo-infrared wavebands (10.5μm-12.5μm) is 5.7km. Its main technical parameters are close to the international state-of-the-art.

Development of the radiometer has been a difficult task. Supported by the leaders of CAS, the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics solved the key problems of high resolution radio of the optic system using a lightweigth design and a big aperture (φ400mm), a stepping scanning machine with high precision (the inter line precision is 10 μrad), a highly sensitive multivariate linear infra-red locator and visible light detector, a radiative cooler with cooling temperature below 100K, and fast signal processing of low noise and wide frequency band. Then also experimented with the reliability and adaptability of the radiometer in the space environment. The work has achieved many technical innovations during its 15 years of research, design, fabrication and experimentation.

At the International Review Panel of Feasibility Study on Beijingτ-Charm Factory (BTCF) held by CAS, 10 prominent foreign experts and 3 Chinese experts gave a high appraisal of this work. They agreed that the BTCF technology is feasible and the difficulty in setting up its collider will not exceed that of the B-factory low energy ring being established in Japan and the USA. The experts thought that the feasibility studies had laid a good foundation for the prefabrication research and the research projects proposed were appropriate.

The BTCF feasibility study was authorized by the Chinese government in 1995. Altogether 170 physicists and engineers from two research institutes of CAS and six universities took part. A total of 51 research topics were studied.

Many simulations and calculations were performed. A magnet lattice was proposed, in which highly bright, monochromic and polarizing models are compatible. Some techniques concerning radio frequency power and magnets were studied. The design of the subdetectors was optimized, including the time of flight counters with high resolution and the inner hadron/μcounter. Some model and simulation tests were carried out on the particle identification system, working gas, etc.

Studies on damage and fracture of metallic materials containing different phase-components, directed by Research Professor Li Guochen of the Institute of Mechanics, won first prize in the 1996 CAS Natural Science Awards.

The research includes: (1) effect of voiding around different phase-components, (2) bifurcation of shear banding, (3)dilatational plastic constitutive equations and ductile fracture criteria, and (4)stress corrosion cracking of structural steels. This research provides a new framework for bringing together microstructual analyses, macroscopic theorems and experimental results. The interaction between two generations of voids is shown to be of vital importance in evaluating the effect of void damage; only when this is taken into account do the computational results agree with the experimental data. Material bifurcation is shown to follow the softest loading path , and the discrete method is developed to reveal patterns of bifurcation disturbance. Two tangent moduli are introduced into the constitutive equations for ductile damage. In addition, the previous stress corrosion cracking model is reformed by taking into account the effect of the volume fraction of carbide.

Remarkable Increase of Enzyme Activity of Black Aspergillus after the Space Travel

The institute of Genetics has made encouraging progress in space life sciences. Researchers in the Laboratory of Space Life Sciences of the Institute found that remarkable variation took place in the T101 strain of the black aspergillus after 15 days in space. They successfully cultured the strain with its saccharogenic enzyme activity 20%-30% higher than that of the reference strain on the ground. This means that the activity unit of saccharogenic enzyme in wine making, food and pharmaceutical industries can be greatly increased without any additional cost.

Since 1987, Chinese scientists have on many occasions launched organisms into space in retrievable satellites and have conducted experiments on these organisms. On October 20, 1996 a saccharogenic enzyme generating bacteria (the T101 strain) was launched into space by the 17^th scientific satellite of China. It stayed in space for 15 days. After it returned to the ground, through 8 months of careful screening of various strains, scientists selected many strains with high productivity. The 8-generation repetitive screening test was carried out on the SPT101 -5 strain. After 15 days in space, the periods of growth acceleration and of highest enzyme-productivity were 12-24 hours earlier than those of the reference strain on the ground. After 142 hours of fermentation, the enzyme activity of the reference strain on the ground began to decrease and the thallus began to grow old, but the activity of the strain that had traveled in space continued to increase after 154 hours, and the enzyme activity of the saccharogenic enzyme generating bacteria was increased by 20%-30% compared with the ground reference strain.

A comet research group at the Yunnan Observatory of CAS has observed the anti-tail and mass ejection of the Hale-Bopp Comet.

In March 1997, in the Gaomeigu Observation Station of Lijiang County in Yunnan Province, this research group took pictures of the Hale-Bopp comet using a telescope with an aperture of 22cm made by the Shanghai Observatory.

From a series of pictures taken on March 2, they found a tail in a direction opposite to the Sun and identified quick ejection of a lump-shaped mass in the direction of the Sun. This rare phenomenon was observed once again on March 3.

The simultaneous appearance of the anti-tail and the mass ejection indicates that there is a physical relationship between these two phenomena.

Authorized by the Chinese government, the CAS Computer Network information Center has been designated to take charge of the operation and management of this newly established ChinaNet Information Center, and the Network Center of Education and Research of China will carry out the Management of the second-order domain names (EDU) of the ChinaNet. Corresponding rules for domain name

China formally entered the Internet in April, 1 994. The Chinese domain name system was established and began to operate in May the same year.

By now more than 50,000 computers in China have entered the Internet, and there are over 150,000 users. The establishment of this information Center indicates that the development, administration operation and service of ChinaNet are now moving further towards order, completion and standardization.

The Institute of Modern Physics is celebrating its 40^th anniversary. During these 40 years, the Institute has developed into an international recognized nuclear science institution with advanced equipment and high-level research. It has made 506 achievements in low-energy light-nuclear reactions, fast neutronic physics, low and intermediate energy heavy ion reaction mechanisms, synthesis and study of nuclei far from the stability line, nuclear structure, nuclear chemistry, and application of heavy ion beams and accelerators. Of these, 112 won national, ministerial or provincial prizes in science development or natural science work. The technical standards of the Lanzhou heavy ion accelerator, designed and developed by the Institute progress has also been made in collision of intermediate-energy heavy ions, characterization of thermonuclei, singular decay of heavy ions, and applications of heavy ion beams. The institute has made breakthroughs in synthesis of new nuclides far from the stability line. For the first time in the world they synthesized new nuclides Hg²⁰⁸, Hf^l85 Th²³⁷, Pr²³⁹, Er^l75, and established the relatively complete decaying skeleton table of 5 important nuclides: Er^{l 53} Yb^l57, Fr²⁰⁹, Ce^l29, and Ce^l30. They also achieved great success in the synthesis and study of new nuclides in the neutro-lacking zone, being the first to synthesize the new nuclides Gd^l35, Ce¹²¹ and Am²³⁵, and the first to observe and study Ke⁶⁹.

The institute has established good relationships with their counterparts in Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, and the USA, and has signed 34 long-term cooperating contracts with related institutions in Japan, Russia. France, and other countries.

With the help of CAS, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has invited renowned scholoars as part-time professors and introduced the newest achievements from more than 100 institutes into their classroom, forming a new style of teaching.

Paying great attention to the integration of teaching and research, the University has invited 300 famous scientists from CAS institutes as their professors, of whom over 100 are Member of CAS and CAE. In addition, they cooperate with the institutes to carry out research projects and establish research institutions. For example, the University cooperated with CAS Hefei Branch to establish the Advanced Research Institute of USTC (Hefei). They jointly train post-graduate students and carry out research projects.

Now this university is playing a leading role in Chinese universities in about l/3 of the academic subjects taught, and the average publishing and citation rate of scientific papers published in authoritative international journals by researchers from USTC has ranked first among Chinese universities in the past 10 years.

A 0.8-1 μm step and repetition projection photoetching machine, developed by the Institute of Photoelectric Technology, recently passed appraisal.

The width of the narrowest line is 0.8μm, with alignment precision smaller than 0.28μm, and it can fabricate 40 silicon wafer pieces per hour with a diameter of 100mm. The success rate of finished products of chips for CB15 multipliers has reached as high as 80%. The technical standards of the machine have reached those of the 8500SE model made by an American company, GCA, in the 1990s. In this project, Chinese scientists first developed the high resolution photoetching mirror with a numerical aperture of 0.45, and the light-energy distribution simulation software for the inhomogenous illumination system.

The first domestically produced digital roentgenoscope, made by Shanghai Zhongke Medical Facility Company (a CAS affiliate), recently passed an appraisal by specialists.

The roentgenoscope is equipped with high-energy X-ray equipment, digital pattern recognition equipment, laser disk storage, etc., and can transfer between video and digital signals to give a clear diagnostic picture. Radiation dosage is reduced to only 10%-20% of that encountered using the traditional photographic process, so that safety is enormously enhanced.

The Beijing-HongKong GPS intelligent pilot system has been successfully developed by the Institute of Remote Sensing Application and the National Engineering Research Center for Geomatrics.

With a year's hard work, researchers at the Institute Remote Sensing Application, CAS, have completed this intelligent pilot system, which can provide direct intelligent pilot service for customers. Based on an improved theory of hypergraph-based data structure, the pilot system has successfully integrated the global positioning, remote sensing, intelligent and multi-media systems. Supported by electronic maps of Beijing and HongKong, the system searches a CD-ROM, and the intelligent module can indicated the best route and the shortest distance; in addition, it can rectify positional deviation.

The Huangnitang Section of Changshan County in Zhejiang Province was ratified by the International Union of Geoscience (IUGS) to be an Ordovican Darriwilian globe stratigraphy section in China.

This achievement was made by a research group in the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, led by Prof. Chen Xu.

The globe stratigraphy section and point is generally called the "Golden Spike" section. Once ratified, it will be accepted internationally and will be taken as the objective standard in chronological subdivision.

In 1991, Prof. Chen Xu and his group made a careful survey of Changshan and Jiangshan in Zhejiang Province and Yushan in Jiangxi Province. They collected some 3,000 fossil samples and more than 100 rock samples, and found that in this area continuous development, grapeolites and conodonts still remain, which can be used to define the stratigraphic units of the Ordovician System. This type of section, especially the Huangnitang section, is rarely observed anywhere.

Organized and implemented by CAS, the 10-year comprehensive scientific expedition in the Nansha Islands has achieved fruitful results.

Studies have been conducted on geological and biological resources, providing an important basis for exploration of the oil and gas resources of the Nansha Islands.

Species composition, aggregation constitution and distribution of biological resources and environmental protection were studied. Four fishing areas with high quality and yield were delimited, and sustainable utilization and protection countermeasures were proposed.

Surveys were also made on some waterways, anchorages and port sites which could be navigated; comprehensive scientific data bases and an information system of the area were established; these can be connected with networks at home and abroad to share and exchange information. Important achievements were also made in marine environment studies.

This project, which has won many prizes, was carried out by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology. In the course of the work, 955 scientific papers have been published and many young scientists trained.

Professor Lu Youngxiang, President of CAS, and Professor Xu Zhihong, Vice president of CAS recently addressed a meeting attended by all the staff of the Bureau of International Cooperation (BIC), including those working in the Center of International Scientific Exchanges. The president and vice president elaborated on the significance of science and technology and the tasks for international cooperation. They said that the international cooperation constitutes an important showcase for the Academy, and has helped greatly in forming its good image in the outside world. Under the new situation of rapid development of world science and technology, CAS should make new friends among foreign scientists while maintaining close ties with the old ones, and should help bring up scientists in the Academy that can function effectively in the international scientific arena. Instead of concentration on traditional personnel and academic exchanges, which should be managed by the research institutes, CAS should shift its focus onto forming new contacts and cooperative relations with foreign enterprises, especially with hi-tech multi-national firms alongside the scientific agencies, research institutes and institutions of higher learning. New forms of cooperation should be forged and strengthened such as joint training of talents, joint research projects, joint participation of mega-science projects, and setting up of joint labs and joint R&D centres. Work should also be stepped up in studying science policies, traditions and superiorities of the Academy's foreign counterparts. Staffers at BIC should provide the Academy with information about experiences and useful lessons of the changing scientific and technological systems in the world. To serve the scientists is an eternal task, and contributions to the reform and opening-up, to the structural readjustment, and to key projects of the Academy are all part and parcel of the Academy's international cooperation endeavours.

UNEP project evaluation expert Dr. Anola has recently introduced two Chinese projects in a Kenyan forestry magazine. The projects are entitled Sand Encroachment Control in Cele County and Large-scale Tamarix Recovery on Shifting-sand and Saline-alkaline Land Using Flood Water and have been carried on since the 1980s in southern Xinjiang by scientists from the Xinjiang institute of Biology, Pedology and Desert Research. China contains one of the world's great deserts, and the desertification in Xinjiang is particularly serious, forming a limiting factor to the economic development of the region. The scientists have selected plant species which best suit the local conditions, and have adopted appropriate techniques and worked in close cooperation with the local people. They make good use of summer floodwater to recover the vegetation on the shifting sand and saline-alkaline land. With their unremitting efforts for more than a decade, some 70,000 hectares of land has been afforested, demonstration plots have been set up on 700 hectares, sand dunes have receded 4-5 kilometers, and 200 hectares of farmland have been rehabilitated. Hazards of wind-blown sand and salinization are now effectively controlled and the local environment remarkably improved.

To give credit to their achievements, UNEP has presented the Xinjiang institute with the Award for Outstanding Contributions in Combating Desertification and Control!ing Land Degradation in Dryland Environment (1995). Specialists working in agriculture, water conservation and desert control in Australia, South Africa and Argentina have shown deep interest in the projects.

The Chengjiang fossil fauna near Kunming in the central Yunnan plateau constitutes a unique window on the early history of biological evolution. Its importance lies not only in the superb preservation of soft-bodied organisms, but also in their remote age. The creatures represented in the rocks lived in the early stages of what is known as the "Cambrian Explosion'', when the first complex marine life appeared and proliferated on the earth. The Chengjiang fossils are estimated to be 530 million years old, approximately 15 million years older than the celebrated Burgess Shale fauna in British Columbia, Canada. The Cambrian Period was traditionally known as the "Age of Trilobites'', yet this type of animal comprises less than 4% of the Chenjiang fossils. This very fact highlights the significance of the Chenjiang fauna in the understanding of the evolution of early life, of which we know so little.

In July, 1984, a well-preserved Naraoia specimen was discovered on the west slope of Mount Maotian by Professor Hou Xianguang, a palaeontologist in the Nanjing institute of Geology & Palaeontology. An article titled Preliminary Notes on the Occurrence of the Unusual Trilobite Naraoia in Asia by Professors Zhang Wentang and Hou Xianguang in 1985 documented this important discovery, thus beginning the long and assiduous search for fossils and related laboratory studies by teams of scientists. Since then about 20,000 specimens have been collected. One of the most spectacular recent discoveries (by Professor Chen Junyuan et al., 1994) is that of a complete specimen of a giant predator called Anomalocaris, which reveals that the animal had a wedge-shaped tail with two slender spines. Equally exciting is the complete specimen with a pair of large frontal appendages of another new, but related species, estimated at one meter in length. Furthermore, the discovery of huge, pineapple slice-shaped jaws 25 centimeters across has made it possible to deduce that the giant jaws belonged to a new species which had an astounding length of two meters.

The discoveries and findings related to Microdictyon, Fuxianhuia Yunnanozoon lividum, and Eldonia have been equally informative and interesting. In 1995 the international Symposium on the Cambrian Explosion was convened in Kumning, Yunnan. So far 4 papers have been published in Nature and Science (2 in each) by Professor Cben Junyuan and his colleagues, with Dr. L. Ranskold from Sweden as the first author of one paper. The New York Times, Science News and Discovery have all devoted space to cover the findings. The Chinese scientists working on the subject have conducted academic exchanges with renowned scholars from Germany, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Britain and Sweden.

A meeting has been recently convened to review the activities and to plan for the future for the 5- year project entitled "Sino-Japanese Joint Research of Sustainable Development of Bio-Production on the Loess Plateau''. The project has been carried on since 1995 by some 30 scientists from the Northwest institute of Soil and Water Conservation and the Northwest Institute of Botany, and their Japanese counterparts of Tokyo University, Okayama University, Utsunomiya University, Hokkaido University, and Nippon University. The project is comprised of five sub-areas research of soil nutrients and water, selection of fine strains, establishment of artificial grassland, introduction of new varieties of trees, and relationship between micro-climate and vegetation community productivity. On the Japanese side the endeavour is connected with another project entitled "Basic Research on Environment Changes and Sustainable Bio-technology Development in East Asia and the Pacific Rim'' supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Science and Culture.

The Loess Plateau project has helped enliven the research work in the Chinese institutes involved. The equipment donated by the Japanese side has been very helpful. Experiments have been conducted on 9,060 crop strains (mainly corn, spring wheat, buckwheat, oat and beans), 27 tree species, 228 grass species and seedlings of 13 species of fruit trees which have been introduced from Japan and other parts of the world. In 1997 more geared-up efforts are being made to further popularize the new strains, to accumulate data and to train young scientists in these areas.

The Key Study Development Project (KSDP), established in 1991 and jointly supported by the Chinese government, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), provides financial support for the purchase of scientific equipment, technical assistance and new buildings and facilities in China's key universities and research institutes. Under the project, 19 State key laboratories, one joint laboratory (with SEDC) and the National Computing and Network Facility of China have been set up and put into operation by CAS. The total credit from the World Bank used was 18.5 million SDR. of which 16.286 million SDR was for procurement of equipment and 2.214 million SDR for technical assistance.

The project is now in its final implementation stage and is being evaluated by agencies and specialists concerned. The goals set by the Staff Appraisal Report of the World Bank for the project were to increase enrolments of graduate students, to improve infrastructure and facilities for research, and to provide opportunities for CAS scientists to attend international conferences and visit foreign labs and for foreign specialists to work in Chinese labs. These goals have been achieved.

Symposium on Environment - Co-sponsored by CAS, the international Soil Society and the Chinese Soil Society, and organised by the Nanjing institute of Soil Science, the international Symposium on interaction of Soil, Man and the Environment was held in Nanjing in May. The 130 participants came from China and 16 other countries and regions. The theme was how to co-ordinate use of soil resources and protection of the environment and how to raise the sustainable productivity of soil.

ACIAR Visitors - A group of specialists headed by Dr. Iam Wilett from the Australian Centre of International Agricultural Research visited the Nanjing Institute of Soil Science, the Northwest institute of Water and Soil Conservation and the Shijiazhuang institute of Agricultural Modernization. Professor Chen Yiyu. Vice President of CAS, met with the guests and both sides discussed cooperation of agriculture-related projects.

ICIMOD-CAS Symposium - The Regional Symposium of Water Collection Engineering of Farm Households in the Himalaya-Hindu Kush Mountains, co-sponsored by ICIMOD and the Chengdu institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Ukrainian Visitors - Dr. Checheli, Deputy Director of the institute of Material Research of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, visited the CAS Institutes of Ceramics, of Metallurgy and of Chemical Engineering.

Asteroids Named - Two asteroids discovered by Chinese astrophysicists in the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing have been named Leetsengdao and Yangchenning respectively after T.D. Lee and Chen Ning Yang both Chinese Americans and Nobel Prize laureates of physics. The naming was approved by the International Society of Astronomy. Professor Zhou Guangzhao, President of CAS, was present at the ceremonies.

Sino-German Fund Inaugurated - Supported by BASF of Germany, the Sino-German R&D Fund has been established. The fund will be devoted to talent training and cooperative projects. Professor Zhou Guangzhao, President of CAS, attended the inauguration ceremony.

Czech Scientists Visit - The Czech Academy of Science Delegation headed by Professor R. Zahradnik, renowned chemist and president of the Academy, visited and gave lectures at the institute of Chemistry, the Shanghai institute of Biochemistry, the institute of Organic Chemistry and the Xi 'an Branch of CAS .

Zhou & Chen Meet Guests - Professor Zhou Guangzhao, President and Professor Chen Yiyu, Vice President of CAS met with Professor k Mrs. C.N. Yang, Professor Samuel C.C. Ting, Professor Shing-tung Yau, Professor Ching Wu Chu, Professor Y.R. Shen, Professor k Mrs. H.T. Nieh and Dr. Leo Esaki. The guests were in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Centre for Advanced Studies, Tsinghua University.

CAS/CHP MOU Signed - A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between CAS and China Hewlett-Packard Company Limited (CHP), with the focus on future collaboration in the field of information security technology. The Engineering Research Center for Information Security Technology (ERCIST) affiliated with the institute of Software, CAS, will be the major player in undertaking the cooperative tasks.

NAS/NAE-CAS/CAE CO-operation - A five-member delegation of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering of the U.S. headed by Dr. John Boright Executive Director, Office of International Affairs of NRC visited China in late May. They and their Chinese counterparts at CAS and CAE held preliminary discussions on the NAS/NAE-CAS/CAE proposed energy policy study project.

Lu Yongxiang Awarded Gold Medal - Professor Lu Yongxiang, Member and President of CAS, has been awarded the Rudolf-Diesel Gold Medal by the German Society of inventors for his achievements in engineering science. Lu is the first Chinese and the first Asian to have received the honour.

Russian Academic Visit - Professor V.E. Fortov, Academician and Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Minister of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation, visited CAS in July. Professor Lu Yongxiang exchanged views with the guest on further cooperation.

Guest from NSB - Professor Richard N. Zare, Chairman of the American National Science Board, visited China in July. Professor Zhou Guangzhao, and Professor Zhang Cunhao, Chairman of China's National Natural Science Foundation, met with the guest and both sides exchanged views on science cooperation and policies concerning basic research.

New Director-General Assumes Office - Dr. Zhang Kan has been appointed Director-General of the Bureau of international Cooperation, CAS. Professor Zhang obtained his Ph. D. degree in psychology at the University of Illinois where he stayed from 1984 to 1990. He was formerly deputy director and then director of the institute of Psychology, CAS from l 993 to early 1997.