Bureau of International Co-operation Chinese Academy of Sciences

Professor Chen Deliang

Professor Chen Deliang is now August Röhss Chair at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden; member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); and an internationally renowned climatologist. He has made major achievements in the fields of regional climate in relation to atmospheric circulations, climate dynamics and climate change.

For more than 10 years, Professor Chen has carried out science and technology projects in cooperation with CAS. He has long been a heavily-involved participant in CAS’s overall development and strategy planning, as well as scientific assessment and counseling. He also maintains long-term cooperative ties with many CAS institutes. He has been successively hired as a distinguished professor by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, and the Institute of Earth Environment.

During his term as executive director of the International Council for Science (ICSU), he contributed to making CAS home to the office of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program, the ICSU’s first international program office in Asia. The office played a significant role in facilitating CAS’s science and technology innovations to appear on the international stage and promoting its international influence. As a member of the executive board of the CAS-initiated international program, the Third Pole Environment, he helped complete the Assessment Report of Tibetan Plateau Eco-environment Changes. The report rendered a scientific basis and strong guidance for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau’s environmental protection and ecological progress, and also served as a scientific reference for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s important exposition on advancing Tibet’s ecological civilization.

Moreover, Professor Chen actively recommends outstanding talents at CAS to the international community and has spared no effort in introducing and promoting research findings and scientific achievements made by CAS scientists. He has also paid high attention to the cultivation of young talents. Each year, he visits several CAS institutes and develops initiatives to carry out collaborative research with backbone researchers. He made outstanding contributions to help foster young talent and push forward the internationalization of CAS’s graduate education.

Professor Earl Ward Plummer

Earl Ward Plummer is a professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University. He has been elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As an eminent scientist in condensed matter physics, he has developed advanced high-resolution observation methods by focusing on investigations of the phenomena associated with the unique environment at a surface or interface. To date, he has published more than 400 scientific articles and been quoted by other scholars over 17,000 times. His research findings in tunneling spectroscopy of singleatoms at the surface, photoelectron spectroscopy and low-dimensional electron systems enjoy extremely high international fame, and he has also won many academic awards.

Professor Plummer’s cooperation with CAS has lasted more than 15 years. He was the chief scientific adviser when the International Center for Quantum Structures was founded at the CAS Institute of Physics. He also served as foreign adviser at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory under the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, was leader of the international expert panel for evaluating the Institute of Physics’ 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), and sat on the judging panel for many important awards. Thanks to his active coordination and strong support, the International Center for Quantum Structures has brought together a good number of top young Chinese scientists, many of whom have become leading figures in the academic community, thus laying a solid foundation for advancing China’s research capabilities in condensed matter physics.

Over the years, he has promoted substantive cooperation in science and technology as well as talent cultivation between CAS and Louisiana State University. He led an international research team based at the Institute of Physics and received a great deal of financial support from Chinese government and CAS for this purpose. His team published a total of some 30 articles in top international journals, including Science, PNAS and PRL, and helped nurture many young researchers.

With his help, the Institute of Physics worked with Louisiana State University to push ahead with double degree programs. He mentored scores of Chinese graduate and postdoctoral students. In recent years, he paid several visits to China, giving lectures and workshops and participating in talent cultivation. He made remarkable contributions to CAS’s endeavor to build a talent pool of professionals with international vision.

In addition, Professor Plummer has actively promoted cooperation with CAS on many important international occasions. He once delivered a special report on his cooperation experience with China at a high-level forum on France-US cooperation on science and technology. This year, he accompanied US energy officials on a visit to China, and introduced collaboration with CAS in detail. This contribution played a positive role in consolidating and deepening the strategic cooperation between CAS and the US Department of Energy.

Professor Shavkat Salikhov

Professor Shavkat Salikhov is president of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, member of the Uzbek Cabinet, and chairman of Uzbekistan’s Committee for Coordination of Science and Technology. He was selected as an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan in 1995, and given the Order “El-Yurt Khurmatu” by the Uzbek president in 2008. As a leading figure in the field of bioorganic chemistry in Uzbekistan, he has published more than 300 scientific articles and five monographs, holds more than 70 patents, and has developed more than ten new medicines.

Under his leadership, cooperation between the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan and CAS has lasted for 16 years. The two sides have jointly published more than 40 scientific articles and applied for five patents, while three experts at the Uzbek academy were given the Tianshan Award by the Government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He played a positive role in pushing for upgrading science and technology cooperation between the two academies. Thanks to his attention and effort, the two academies have established efficient and long-term talents cultivation mechanisms based on various talent programs at CAS. Furthermore, he frequently visits Chinese universities and research institutes and has also received visits by CAS leaders, and made outstanding contributions to deepening science and technology cooperation between the two academies.

In 2013, the Central Asian Center of Drug Discovery and Development, one of CAS’s first overseas institutes, was founded in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek Academy became a core member of the center, where Professor Salikhov assumed the post of chief Uzbek scientist. He contributed his ideas to the center’s development and took an active part in its research work. He inspected the construction site in person, investing much of his wisdom, effort and energy to ensure high-end, high-standard development. Thanks to his unreserved effort, the Central Asian Center of Drug Discovery and Development is becoming an outstanding example of both CAS’s internationalized development and science and technology cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.