"The CAS Foreign Membership Certificate Award Ceremony and the Forum on Basic Science and the Integration of Science and Education" were held at the Yuquanlu Campus of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) on 23 February, 2014.
The ceremony began with the conferral of the CAS Foreign Membership Certificate to Prof. David Gross by CAS President Bai Chunli. President Bai expressed his congratulations to Prof. Gross and his gratitude to the distinguished international guests present for their efforts and contributions to China's science and education. Prof. Bai stressed the importance of basic research for scientific research and higher education. He believes that basic science will see more science-education integration in the future.
"We naturally link up disciplinary development and scientific research programs with education, and let research programs and projects drive the development of scientific disciplines." Bai explained when discussing CAS. He said that he hoped that in accordance with the overall strategic positioning of CAS, UCAS will become a comprehensive world-class university as a result of continuous effort and international cooperation.
In the first part of the Forum, a number of themed lectures were delivered by prestigious experts--Nobel Prize winners Prof. David Gross, Prof. Gerard't Hooft and Fields Medalists Prof. Shing-Tung Yau and Prof. Edward Witten. In the Q&A session after the lectures, the lecturers had animated discussions with graduate students concerning how to overcome difficulties in scientific research, and regarding the current status and development of basic science.
In the second part of the Forum, the guests of the first session and about 50 experts from CAS and outstanding Chinese universities and research institutes held a roundtable meeting concerning "the Future of High Energy Physics".
This forum was chaired by UCAS Executive Vice-President Wu Yueliang and Fundamental Physics Prize recipient Prof. Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Studies.
(Written by Hu Menglin)
