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44 Professor Wan Lijun, TWAS Fellow, CAS Member, and Director General of the Institute of Chemistry, Center for Molecular Science at CAS. “I consider the TWAS-CAS fellowship as the high point of my career (and the internationalization of my career).” Editorial News Report: CAS and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World–A Fruitful Partnership TWAS Fellow Professor Yao Tandong, Director of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research at CAS and a CAS Member. In September 2012, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will host the 12th General Conference and 23rd General Meeting of TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. The conference, which has the theme ‘Science and Sustainability,’ is expected to bring more than 700 participants to Tianjin, and is the latest manifestation of a fruitful 30-year partnership. TWAS, then known as the Third World Academy of Sciences, was founded in Trieste, Italy in 1983 with the aim of promoting “scientific excellence and capacity in the South for science-based sustainable development,” according to its mission statement. CAS scientists were involved in TWAS activities from the beginning, and in 1986 a TWAS office opened at CAS headquarters in Beijing, which later became the Regional Office for East and South-East Asia and the Pacific. A year later TWAS held its first event outside Italy, a General Conference in Beijing. It was a milestone for China as well as for TWAS, as it was one of the first times the country had put its science on display to the world and made it clear that it welcomed collaborations with scientists in both developing and developed countries. The opening ceremony was held in the Great Hall of the People, where China’s top legislative bodies meet. Mohamed President of Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS) and TWAS Fellow, Professor Chen Xiaoya. Chen is also a CAS Member and Professor at the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology. Professor Fang Jingyun, Director of the Institute of Botany at CAS. Hassan, who participated in the meeting and later served as TWAS executive director, has called that meeting the “coming-out party” for Chinese science. Beijing again hosted the TWAS General Conference in 2003, marking the organization’s 20-year anniversary. The opening ceremony again took place in the Great Hall of the People, this time just hours after the successful completion of China’s first manned spaceflight. Speakers included Chinese President Hu Jintao, Nobel Laureates Hartmut Michel and Samuel C. Ting, then-TWAS President C.N.R. Rao, and then-President of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Bruce Alberts. The meeting highlighted how far both TWAS and Chinese science had come. Today, the Regional Office is headed by CAS President Bai Chunli, who also serves as vice president of TWAS. The office helps countries in the region to nominate potential TWAS members (see sidebar), organizes TWAS-CAS workshops on topics at the frontiers of science, and nominates candidates for TWAS prizes. One of its biggest responsibilities is administering the TWAS-CAS fellowships, which since 2004 have brought nearly 400 scientists from other developing countries to China for Ph.D. training, postdoctoral studies, or visiting researcher stints. The fellowships, which last for a few months for visiting researchers and for between six months and a year for others, give recipients the opportunity to make international contacts and receive training and access to equipment that may not be available at their home institutions. “Science is not a rich man’s club,” says Yuan Yaxiang, a professor at the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Scientific/Engineering Computing who has supervised some of the students in the program. “People in developing countries have the potential WONG to contribute to science, so why not use it? It’s good for the whole world.” One 2010 participant, Emeka E. Oguzie, wrote in an e-mail, “I consider RICKY the TWAS-CAS fellowship as the high point of my career (and the interna- BY tionalization of my career). The fellowship enabled me to do good quality work, which I have been proud to present at international conferences and PHOTOS publish in key, high-impact journals.” Oguzie spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) in Shenyang, where CREDIT:
CREDIT: COURTESY OF CAS he “learnt how to make use of modern research facilities and had access to current literature,” he writes. Now back in his native Nigeria, where he is a reader (professor) in chemistry at the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Oguzie maintains close ties with his colleagues at the institute and says that his experiences there helped him successfully apply for grants to buy some of the same research equipment he used in China. “This means that my lab is comparatively better equipped than most similar labs [in Nigeria] studying corrosion, which is attracting a lot of postgraduate students and as well as interest from oil and gas companies,” he writes. (Corrosion is a major problem on the equipment used for oil and gas drilling.) One of Oguzie’s students, Benedict Ikenna Onyeachu, is now at IMR on a TWAS-CAS fellowship of his own, comparing the corrosion properties of two different materials. He plans to return to Nigeria next year, where he hopes that his research can help local industries. In addition, he says, “I owe young minds (especially scholars) in my country the duty of training them and allowing them to acquire and appreciate the knowledge I have gained thus far.” Another former TWAS-CAS fellow who is looking to apply his training to immediate problems back home is Emmanuel Iyayi Unuabonah, who in 2006 spent time at the Institute of Soil Science in Nanjing. A graduate student at the time, he learned to analyze samples using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction equipment as well as “how to design a workable experiment, laboratory ethics, and how to write articles for peer-reviewed journals with high-impact factors,” he says. Now a senior lecturer in chemistry at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria, he is working on “developing low-cost materials with high efficiency for removing micropollutants from water and wastewater,” work that has been helped by his continuing relationship with his mentor in Nanjing. Unuabonah credits his experience there with improving both his research and teaching abilities. Kifayatullah Khan, who is now doing a TWAS-CAS Postgraduate Fellowship at the Research Center for Eco-environment Sciences as part of his Ph.D. work at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan, hopes his experience will have similar results. “Once I enhance my educational and technical skills, then I will be able to contribute something in the development of my motherland,” he explains. “With improved presentational and communicational skills I will be able to teach in a better way and will inspire students in innovation and research, which are the key factors in the development of a nation.” Khan plans to analyze how heavy metals in soil and ground water may make their way into agricultural and dairy products, and ultimately the humans who consume them. When attendees gather for the TWAS 12th General Conference and 23rd General Meeting in September this year, they may not be treated to anything as dramatic as a first glimpse of China’s scientific landscape or breaking news of the country’s first spaceflight, but they may still find themselves surprised by how far their hosts have come scientifically—and what they’re planning to do next. (L to R) Bai Chunli, C.N.R. Rao, and Bruce Alberts at the TWAS 14th General Meeting, 2003 in Beijing. TWAS Honors and Awards Each year TWAS elects 45 to 50 new members who have made significant contributions to science, and who either live and work in a developing country or have actively promoted science in developing countries. Mainland China currently has 160 TWAS members. TWAS also awards a number of prizes that recognize excellent work by scientists in developing countries. Over the years, 42 researchers in China have won such prizes. Dr. Emeka Oguzie from Nigeria, 2005 CAS-TWAS Postdoctoral Fellowship Awardee in the Institutes of Metal Research. The CAS-TWAS-WMO Forum The CAS-TWAS-World Meteorological Organization Forum (CTWF) was founded in 2000 with the goal of improving climate modeling and prediction. At the annual CTWF symposia, mathematicians, physicists, and atmospheric and oceanic scientists come together in China to discuss gaps in knowledge related to modeling and how to fill them. The emphasis of the 2011 workshop was on building the research capacity of participants, establishing connections among them, and managing the local impact of global climate change. “Once I enhance my educational and technical skills, then I will be able to contribute something in the development of my motherland.” Editorial News Report 45
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