China Daily Global Edition (USA)
ACADEMIES ELECT RECORD NUMBER OF FOREIGNERS
Microsoft co-founder’s selection points to ongoing search for top-tier talent in specified fields
News that Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp, had been elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering — the only nonacademic invited to join this year — has put overseas academicians and the role of foreign experts in the spotlight.
This year, the academy and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the country’s leading research institutes, elected a record number of foreign scientists and experts. The engineering academy elected 18, while the science academy invited 16.
The number of new members of the science academy had never exceeded 14 since the first group of foreign academics was elected in 1994, while the engineering academy had never before selected more than 10 new members in one year.
The think tanks, which are directly affiliated with the State Council, China’s Cabinet, conduct research in the fields of science, technology and engineering, in addition to advising the government and cultivating talent at universities they have established or cooperate with.
“China now values talent more than ever before. We encourage foreign experts to participate in selections for the country’s science and technology awards, and their standing is equal to their Chinese colleagues,” said Zhang Jianguo, administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.
The admission procedure is rigorous. Non-Chinese candidates require at least five nominations, compared with three for Chinese nationals, and they must win the approval of at least two-thirds of experts who vote to be selected.
Only foreign talent with high international reputations and a record of contributing to the development of science, technology and engineering in China, and long experience of international exchanges, can be eligible for membership.
For example, Man-Chung Tang, a member of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States who was elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2000, led design and construction projects for a number of bridges in China, including the Yangpu Bridge in Shanghai and the Yangtze Bridge in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province.
Meanwhile, David Ho, who was elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2003, improved the lives of people with HIV/AIDS by helping to develop combination anti-retroviral therapy.
Growing openness
Chen Deliang, a Chineseborn Swedish climatologist who was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences this year, has noticed a growing interest in overseas talent and a greater openness toward foreign experts.
“I worked in China as director of science at the National Climate Center between 2002 and 2008. Compared with then, China now offers more opportunities and competitive conditions, such as better salaries for foreign experts, than before,” he said.
Among those opportunities, Chen is “extremely proud” of the “Third Pole Environment”, a research program for global climate and environmental changes on the plateau of China’s Tibet autonomous region and surrounding countries and regions.
International partnerships, including cooperation between China and Sweden, play an important role in the program, which was initiated by CAS in 2009.
“Because Sweden has a long tradition of leading international sustainability and Earth System research, such as hosting the first environmental conference in 1972 and pioneering research in Tibet by Swedish scientists, I believe my international network and experience can be useful,” he said.
Yukio Tamura has seen “many research seeds” in the field of wind engineering in China, especially wind-resistant structures and programs designed to reduce the risk of wind-related disasters.
The Japanese national, a former president of the International Association for Wind Engineering who was elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering this year, has been a professor at Bejing Jiaotong University since 2014, spending more than 180 days in China every year.
“China is the leading country in the construction of tall and super-tall buildings, long-span roof structures and long-span bridges. In addition, it suffers the world’s second-highest economic losses as a result of natural disasters, so it has a strong need for education and research in wind engineering. We have many problems to solve before we can achieve a safer and sustainable society. I am so excited to be working in China,” he said.
As the coordinator of the 21st Century Center of Excellence at Tokyo Polytechnic University in Japan, Tamura has arranged for more than 50 Chinese researchers to study at the school.
With the support of his host professor and students at Beijing Jiaotong University, Tamura has managed to continue his academic life in China and receives funding from several Chinese colleges and the government.
“I applied to the National Natural Science Foundation of China for funds to study the pedestrian-level wind environment around tall buildings, and received 900,000 yuan ($137,000) over four years — 2015 to 2018. Chongqing University also provided an extra 2 million yuan,” he said.
As a member of the One Thousand Talents Plan, a government-backed initiative to recruit foreign experts, he also received 3 million yuan between September 2014 and August.
The program, which was established in 2011, aims to attract about 1,000 high-end experts over a 10-year period. To be eligible, candidates require a doctorate from a university overseas, must have worked in China for three consecutive years and spent at least two months in the country in each of those years. Every expert accepted to the program is granted at least 1 million yuan, but the figure can rise as high as 5 million yuan.
Fraser Stoddart, one of two Nobel laureates elected to CAS this year, joined the program in 2013, and his membership was extended by three years in August. He is employed as a guest professor at Tianjin University’s School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, where he trains young scientists.
“People in their ’70s like me should be stepping back and encouraging young people to come forward and conduct research in a totally independent way. The academic environment for students in China is excellent and offers huge opportunities,” the UK national said.
While China has made great efforts to attract and support talent from overseas, it still faces a number of challenges, such as the evaluation procedure for grant applications.
Chen, who has years of research experience in both Sweden and China, highlighted the differences between the two countries’ systems. “Sweden uses more international experts as assessors, and the proposals are usually written in English with a just a summary in Swedish. The evaluation procedure in China is far more tortuous,” he said.
Donald Grierson, a newly elected member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has been professor of plant genetics at Zhejiang University since 2011. He was attracted by the “experience of academics in modern research methods” in China and “hardworking Chinese students”.
However, his lack of familiarity with the domestic funding system and an inability to write in Chinese makes it difficult for him to obtain funding from local sources.
He is therefore dependent on help from the university, where he was registered as a full professor in April.
“During my career in the UK I probably wrote 200 grant applications and was lucky enough to have around 50 funded. It accounted for at least 10 percent of my scientific life, a time when I did nothing but ask for money. I have no desire to return to that pattern of activity,” he said.
In April, the UK citizen was appointed head of an overseas academicians’ “master workshop”, financed by Zhejiang University, for five years. Five academicians — plant biologists from the United States, New Zealand and France — are the other mem- bers of the group.
When it comes to the future of the Chinese research environment, Chen said the country has done reasonably well in recent years, but work is still needed to provide all researchers, not just the most successful, with a creative and stimulating working environment.
Policies relaxed
Last year, the government of Shanghai relaxed many policies related to applications for permanent residency, or China’s “green card”.
To deepen the pool of overseas talent, the government removed a ban on applications from people who worked in certain sectors. It also stopped assessing candidates strictly on their work ranking and length of residence, and scrapped its upper age limit of 60.
Beijing quickly followed suit, implementing a system under which applicants can accumulate points in accordance with their educational status, length of service in China and the sectors in which they work.
Applicants must accrue 70 points before they can be recommended for residency.
More than 1,500 permanent residency cards were issued last year, according to the Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration at the Ministry of Public Security. More than 900,000 expats worked in China during the same period, according to the foreign experts’ administration.
While Tamura has permanent residence, Chen said he would consider applying if he could find a position where his knowledge and experience were valued and used to maximum effect, and if his family enjoyed the lifestyle.
“For a country like China, I think it is important to create a policy and environment to attract and retain talent, since experts are critical capital for future development,” he said.
“I am pretty open to different options. The most important thing is to make a greater contribution in a role that is needed in China and which suits me at the same time.”
The academic environment for students in China is excellent.” Fraser Stoddart, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences