Samuel C. C. Ting, a world-renowned physicist and Gu Guanqun, president of Southeast University (SEU) in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, signed a three-year protocol on May 31, the 100th anniversary of the famous university.

The protocol concerns SEU's participation in experiments with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 02 (AMS-02) on the International Space Station (ISS) led by Nobel laureate Ting.

It is the first time that a Chinese university will take part in one of the ISS's most important and difficult projects.

According to Ting, universities have the best academic atmosphere and freedom. "Most Nobel Prize winners come from universities," he said.

"I have been to SEU many times," explained Ting, who is also an honorary professor of SEU. "The teachers here are very much interested in scientific research. They always put their whole heart into the work and never give up. That is the most important reason why I chose this Chinese university to cooperate with."

Apart from SEU, many world-famous universities are also participating in the AMS-02 experiments, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, Aachen University in Germany, Rome University in Italy and Zurich University in Switzerland.

The cooperation includes establishing an AMS data-analyzing center and a space-science training center at SEU, which will exchange experts and scientists among the member universities and institutions. SEU will also help with the construction of AMS-02 experimental instruments.

The AMS-02 experiments on the ISS will research dark matter, missing matter and anti-matter.

The ISS is the largest and most complex international scientific project in history. It draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations.

"The significance of the experiment is only to increase human knowledge at the moment," added Ting. "And the results are always surprising and opposite to our original hypotheses."

Who can tell what will happen in the future? "About 100 years ago scientists discovered the electron and the X-ray. No one at that time would know how extensively they are used today," said Ting.

(China Daily June 3, 2002)