Science and technology leaders need open training

JasonYoo

Science and technology leaders need open training [Copy link]

Beijing, June 6 (Reporters Xiang Jie and Li Daqing) General Secretary Hu Jintao's important remarks on innovative talents and the news that Chinese scientists Zhu Xiping and Cao Huaidong solved the century-old problem "Poincaré Conjecture" have become hot topics at the two academies' academic conferences in the past two days.

What is an innovative talent? Academician Xia Jianbai, a researcher at the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, took Zhu Xiping as an example. Obviously, he has a better understanding of this young scientist who has just solved a classic problem. "He changed his academic career and did not publish a paper for 5 years. And he spent a long time on the Poincaré Conjecture." The implication is that under the current science and technology evaluation system, before achieving success, a lonely young scientist on the long road of inquiry will bear pressure that ordinary people cannot imagine. "The most important thing for innovative talents is to be able to endure loneliness." Xia Jianbai said.

Being able to endure loneliness is more of a requirement for a scientist's personal scientific literacy. As an academician, the winner of the highest academic honor in China's science and technology community, how should we cultivate innovative talents, especially young and middle-aged leaders?

"It is easy to get thousands of soldiers, but hard to get a general." Academician Xu Kuangdi, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that open training should be conducted for innovative talents, especially young and middle-aged leaders. "Under the situation that the world's overall scientific and technological level is ahead of ours, it is difficult to train a large number of innovative scientific and technological talents without open training." "Open training is an effective way to accelerate the training of world-class scientific and technological talents and leaders." He said, "Look at the heroes of our country's 'two bombs and one satellite'. Many of them are scientists who have received education abroad. After returning to China, they brought back world-leading technology and played a great role in the development of our country's science and technology."

This point was confirmed by Academician Pei Gang from the Shanghai Institute of Life Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "There are 100 young people in our academy who have been included in the 'Hundred Talents Program' of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and 50 have received the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund." Pei Gang believes that this is the result of their unconventional selection of talents and open training of talents. "Among our eight existing research institutes, six have non-Chinese directors, including Chinese with foreign nationality and foreigners. We believe that cultivating talents in such an international environment can push our work to a new level."

However, at present, there are still some unsatisfactory aspects in China's open training of talents. For example, many applications for scientific research funds are only open to domestic scientists, and it is difficult for young and middle-aged scientists who are willing to serve the motherland but have changed their nationality to apply for them. Academician Chen Yiyu, director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, said that in last year's survey, the Foundation found that some outstanding young scientists, because they have obtained American or British nationality, cannot apply for relevant project funding support from the Foundation after returning to China to work according to relevant regulations, which makes it difficult for them to carry out or even start scientific research work well.

To this end, the National Natural Science Foundation of China introduced a new policy this year: "Even if you retain your foreign nationality, as long as you have returned to work in China with all your heart and soul, and your domestic work unit is the only employer, you can still receive support from the foundation." Chen Yiyu said that after a survey last year, the foundation experimentally supported four Chinese scientists with British and American nationality, giving them the same treatment as young domestic scientists, which achieved very good results. "This year, another group of young people will return from abroad..." Chen Yiyu said.