Katharina Kohse-Hönghaus is a professor at Bielefeld University, Germany, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, a member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech, and the president of Combustion Institute. She was awarded "Distinguished Woman in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering" by International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and "Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany" by German President Horst Köler. She is a famous expert in combustion diagnostics, a pioneer of novel experimental techniques of low temperature combustion, and a leading scientist in biofuel combustion.

She has collaborated with scientists from University of Science and Technology of China to develop synchrotron-based diagnostic method of biomass pyrolysis, detect enol intermediates and measure chemical structures of bio-alcohol combustion using novel synchrotron-based combustion diagnostic techniques. She has made great efforts in recommending outstanding scientists from CAS to hold important positions in international combustion organizations, which largely improved the academic influence of CAS in international combustion research. By her education and recommendation, three young scientists from China have been awarded the Bernard Lewis Fellowship, which is the highest young scientist award of the Combustion Institute. Remarkably, all of the three awardees are from CAS. She also energetically impelled the development of China's combustion fundamental research. As a result, China's annual publication number on the two prestigious combustion journals, Combustion and Flame, and Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, has reached the second highest among all countries. The Center for International Research on Largescale Fires of USTC has been approved by the China Ministry of Science and Technology as one of the National Centers for International Research.

In 2012, she was invited to attend the roundtable discussion with the General Secretary Xi Jinping, and offered suggestions on building the innovationoriented country for China, which is highly recognized by the General Secretary. In 2014, invited by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, she also offered many suggestions to the State Council on environmental protection and international development of China.

Prof. Katharina Kohse-Hönghaus is the first female recipient of the Award for International Scientific Cooperation of CAS.

Prof. John Kutzbach 

Prof. John Kutzbach, a long-term director of Center for Climate Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, is an internationally recognized first class scientist on climate numerical simulation. He is also one of pioneers and founders in paleoclimate modelling. In 2006, he has been elected a member of National Academy of Sciences.

As one of the forerunners of paleoclimate modelers, he has studied the responding and feeding back mechanisms in the simulation of changing earth process through groundbreaking connections of climatology, geology and ecology sciences with numerical method of physics and bio-geochemistry. He has successfully revealed the mechanism and driving force of climatic environmental changes at various tectonic to orbital time scales. His fi ndings have opened up a new direction of human beings for a deeper understanding of the past, present and future changes of earth system, which also initiated a new era of public perception of climate science.

In his 30 years of collaboration with CAS, Prof. Kutzbach has pushed Chinese earth science into a new dynamic stage combining research of traditional geology and numerical simulation. He has co-published many papers of collaborated study results with scientists from CAS on internationally esteemed journals, such as Nature, Science, etc. He has promoted the generations of major joint projects sponsored by NSFs of both China and USA. He has made indelible contribution to the fast development of global change study of CAS, and to helping Chinese scientist entering the global stage and making original breakthroughs in Earth System Science.

He passes his new ideas, new techniques and new methods selfl essly to Chinese colleagues, and contributes outstandingly to the growth of excellent leading talents in CAS. For many years, he keeps inviting key researcher from CAS to visit US carrying out collaborations. He has also held series lectures of climate dynamics in China. Among the collaborators once worked in his laboratory, three have become a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and many have become winner of National Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Scholars.

Prof. John Roger Speakman 

Prof. John Roger Speakman was formerly the director of the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at University of Aberdeen before being enrolled by National “1000 Talent Program” in 2011. Now he works at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS as a Principal Investigator.

Professor Speakman has been devoted to the study of the molecular mechanism and inter-individual differences in food intake, energy balance and body composition. He is a recognized world expert in the use of the doublylabeled water method to measure energy expenditure that remains the gold standard reference for applications of the method. His research provides insight to the mechanism of energy imbalance in human and animal models including obesity and diabete and also has wide implications in the fi elds of ageing and ecophysiology. He has published over 450 papers in peer reviewed journals including Nature and Science. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scottish National Academy) in 2004, the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2008, the UK Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 2009 and the European Academy of Sciences (Academia Europaea) in 2011. Professor Speakman has been undertaking several important research projects including NSFC programs and Strategic Priority Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and published over 70 papers in leading peer reviewed journal since he started working in China. Over 10 graduate students from both China and abroad as well as 3 postdoc researchers have been working in his lab in Beijing.

He played a proactive role in promoting the international collaboration between China and UK with respect to scientific research and education. With his great effort, the Dual PhD-degree program between University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Aberdeen was signed up in 2014. In addition, he organized 2012 CAS-NovoNordisk Foundation Workshop, and invited several high-profi le scientists outside China to visit CAS.