Fu Congbin, a Chinese scientist specializing in the studies of climate change, was elected as the new president of the Pacific Science Association (PSA), the organization announced Sunday.

"The PSA is involved in disciplines of various kinds and I will work to realize more exchanges and cooperation among different areas of study and wish to contribute to the sustainable development in the Pacific region," said Fu.

The 67-year-old professor is one of the leading Chinese scientists working on climate variability and dynamics and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"The China Association for Science and Technology is an adhering organization of the PSA. China will make more contributions to the PSA in the future," Fu said.

The PSA, founded in 1920, is a non-governmental scholarly organization that seeks to advance science, technology, and sustainable development in and of the Asia-Pacific region.

Chinese scientists have been active participants in the regional academic organization. Zhou Guangzhao, former president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was the president of the PSA during the 1990s.

Fu has been vice-president of the PSA and member of its executive council in recent years. "Science is for the benefit of society," Fu said, "the PSA has recently set up some task forces to get itself further involved with local science organizations and work on some specific issues."

Members of the Hawaii-based organization have also realized that more interaction with other science groups within the region would help the 87-year-old PSA regain its youth, Fu added.

Fu, who will serve as the PSA president from 2007 to 2011, has been engaged in studies including air-sea interaction, air-land interaction, and climate-ecosystem interaction on global and regional scales. He has put special attention to the modeling and diagnosis of the variations of monsoon systems and their response and feedback to earth system dynamics.

The PSA is composed of both individual scientist members and national and regional member organizations including China, Australia, France, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, a range of Pacific island nations, and others.

(PLA Daily June 18, 2007)