Bai Chunli, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said on Saturday that the academy plans to cultivate more excellent scientists who will lead research in strategic fields.

At the CAS first work conference on human resources which starts Saturday, Bai, who is also a world-recognized chemist and CAS academician, said that the academy will also recruit promising young scientists from throughout the world, especially those Chinese studying or working abroad.

He said his academy is planning a mid-term project on human resources in the coming one or two decades.

In addition, the CAS would launch the Einstein Professorship exchange program this year. World leading scientists, such as Nobel scientific laureates, will be invited to give speeches to Chinese scientists on CAS forums.

In a bid to support the social and economic development in northeast and west China, the CAS will sponsor visiting scholars in the two regions.

Bai said the CAS views the Science and Technology University of China, affiliated to the CAS, and the CAS graduate school, two key training bases.

The CAS has 40 percent of the state's total CAS academicians, top academic honor in China, and 8.4 percent of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) academicians.

Among 44,000 CAS employees, three fourths are under the age of 45 years, 53 percent hold master's or doctor's degrees, 82 percent are scientific researchers or technologists.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2004)