CAS President Hou Jianguo (L) and Gonokami Makoto, President of RIKEN, address the event via a video link.

An event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the exchange and cooperation between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the RIKEN was held both online and offline on December 7. It was chaired by Zhang Yaping, CAS’s Vice-President.

At the event, CAS President Hou Jianguo said that over the past 40 years, as an important national research institute of China and Japan, CAS and RIKEN have carried out in-depth cooperation in many fields, including physics, chemistry, astronomy, materials and life sciences, which has been continuously enriched in form and expanded in scale, and has produced a number of influential research results.

Through personnel exchanges and mutual assistance, the two sides have accumulated trust, laid the foundation for win-win cooperation and established a profound friendship, Hou noted.

He expressed the hope that the two research institutes would continue to build a new funding mechanism for exchanges and a multi-tiered strategic cooperative partnership, further cooperate in scientific and technological innovation in more areas, jointly open a new chapter in bilateral cooperation and exchanges, so that more fruits will benefit the two peoples and make greater contribution to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

In his speech, Gonokami Makoto, President of RIKEN, spoke highly of the exchanges and cooperation between the two sides over the past four decades. He said CAS and RIKEN began their cooperation in accelerator science and metal processing technology after signing a memorandum of cooperation in 1982.

He pointed out that the two sides have conducted thousands of talents exchanges and cooperated in various fields, contributing to the two countries’ sci-tech development and bilateral relations.

The world is currently faced with such common challenges as global warming, an energy crisis, marine pollution and COVID-19 pandemic, which call for cross-border scientific and technological cooperation on a global scale, he said, adding that RIKEN is willing to continue to cooperate with CAS to drive social reform and create a better future.

During the event, CAS and RIKEN commended those who had made outstanding contributions to their exchanges and cooperation, planted a tree commemorating the 40th anniversary, and held a launch ceremony of the Joint Laboratory of the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Machinery — the Optical Quantum Engineering Research Center.

After the commemoration, participants share their views on current and frontier scientific issues at an academic seminar.

Source: Bureau of International Cooperation,

Chinese Academy of Sciences