China Info - DAAD

Chinese Physicist Alumni to Germany Meet in Lanzhou
at an International Workshop on Heavy Ion Physics
“We have had the most satisfactory
collaboration and exchanges with German
universities and research centres since
China started opening to the outside
world in the late 1970s”, beamed
Professor Xie Ming in his opening
address of a recent Alumni-Meeting of
Chinese physicists in Lanzhou. Xie, Vice-
Director of the Institute of Modern
Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy
of Sciences in Lanzhou, is a
“Deutschland-Alumnus” himself: He has
been for several research stays to
Germany, particularly at the Gesellschaft
für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in
Darmstadt, IMPs most important
international cooperation partner.
The Alumni-Meeting was jointly
organized by IMP, GSI and DAAD. It was
only made possible by generous support
from GSI. Dr. Helmut Zeittraeger, the
outgoing Managing Director of GSI,
considered the meeting as a way to show
GSI’s dedication to long-term scientific
and technological cooperation with
China, especially with its partner IMP in
Lanzhou. Not surprisingly, alumni from
GSI formed the largest group among the
70 physicist alumni who gathered in
Lanzhou.
Dr. Otto Klepper from GSI summed up
26 years of cooperation between GSI and
IMP and shared his personal memories,
photos and some anecdotes with the
participants. Dr. He Hong, Chief
Representative of the Helmholtz
Association in China, the biggest German
research organisation,
gave a
presentation of
Helmholtz’s
major fields of
activities. Dr. He
is also a Deutschland-Alumnus.
He gained his
PHD in laser
physics with the
University of
Jena. The
director of the
DAAD Beijing
Office, Dr.
Thomas Schmidt-
Doerr, briefed the
alumni on
sponsorship opportunities for Sino-
German research cooperations granted
by various German and Chinese
organisations.
The next day first saw an impressive
“Einstein Forum” held in the auditorium
of neighboring Lanzhou university,
which was attended by many students of
the Physics department. Chaired by
IMP’s Director Prof. Zhan Wenlong and
GSI’s Scientific Director Prof. Walter
Henning, the Forum was part of various
events to celebrate the centenary of
Albert Einstein’s “miraculous year” 1905.
All these events
were organized
under the
auspices of the
German Embassy
in China whose
S c i e n c e
Counsellor Dr.
Hartmut Keune
took part in the
meeting in
Lanzhou.
The Einstein
Forum and the
subsequent four
day “InternationalWork-
shop on Heavy
Ion Accelerators”
gave
participants the chance to take a close
look on IMP’s new Heavy Ion Research
Facility Lanzhou (HIRFL). It also
provided a glimpse into the future
For the new FAIR project, the surface occupied by GSI in Darmstadt
will more than double in the future. Animation: GSI
Two prominent Deutschland-Alumni: Prof. Li Fashen, President of
Lanzhou University (left), and Professor Xie Ming, Vice-Director of
IMP Lanzhou.
cooperation between GSI and IMP, in
which the international project FAIR
(International Facility for Antiproton and
Ion Research) will play an important role:
In this framework a new accelerator
facility for the research with ion and
antiproton beams will be built at GSI in
Darmstadt. With
this new project,
GSI aims to
provide an
outstanding
accelerator and
experimental
facility for
research at the
level of atoms,
atomic nuclei,
protons and
neutrons as the
building blocks
of nuclei – and
Prof. Walter Henning,
scientific director of
GSI. Photo: IMP
part of a wider family called hadrons – and
the subnuclear constituents called
quarks and gluons. After its completion,
FAIR will provide research opportunities
for a total of 2,000 scientists from all over
the world. Much to the delight of China’s
researchers in heavy ion physics and of
GSI, the Chinese government recently
announced its plan to join the project. A
Sino-German memorandum of
understanding will be signed soon.
(Thomas Schmidt-Dörr)
DAAD China Info 2/2005 7