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This morning I will venture to talk about China's basic research and its national goals at the turn of the century. In my opinion, basic research is the most fundamental and lively one of the three components in the science and technology (S&T) arena, the other two being applied research and technological development.
As a major source of knowledge innovation, basic research has been, directly or indirectly, giving an impetus to the economic boost and social progress and promoting the upsurge of human civilization.
For four to five centuries, basic science has proved to be a prime motive for technology inno-vation and economic boost in the west. Just as Newtonian mechanics formed the basis for the mechanical age and quantum mechanics the age of electronics and atomic and molecular en-gineering, so basic research conducted in the recent decades will certainly become the source of HiTech of the 21st century. For example, fundamental study in genomics, proteomics, cell biology and neuroscience, plus the active participation of mathematics, physics and chemis-try, will definitely lead to enormous development of life sciences and biotechnology, resulting in radical changes in agriculture and medicine. Obviously, the same trend will happen not only in life sciences, but also in all other major fields, such as the fields of novel materials and energy sources.
On the other hand, even in the west, the birth of the idea of setting national goals for basic research, or for scientific research in general, is relatively recent. Only after WWII was it re-alized by all major countries that setting national goals in basic research would extensively help enhance their economic competitiveness and, moreover, their comprehensive national strength.
Now I would like to defend why China particularly needs to emphasize "applied" basic re-search in its national goals for basic science and why China's science has so far been more inclined to application. Let us skip a lengthy discussion on the historical and ideological rea-sons. I wish just to emphasize that China, as of today, with close to 1.3 billion people, a per capita GNP still a 3-digit figure (in US dollars) and arable land barely a tenth of a hectare per capita, cannot reject utilitarianism totally, but only to some proper extent.
Trying hard to take a large step towards modernization in the next few decades, it is not sur-prising that we should set our national goals for the S&T sector, including the pure research arena.
In contemporary China, we try to set national goals for basic research in the following direc-tions:
a) Part of basic research should be directed to become the
precursor, source and backup force for new and high technology
We understand that competition in the Hi Tech fields is very acute
indeed. Although Prof. Wang Xuan could show you that China did
have ample room for development in the field of electronic publishing,
in general China may have little chance in catching up with the
leading edge technologies the United States in, for instance,
a tenth of a micron microelectronics. However, I would like to
illustrate here that it would still not be too late for China
to fight for a status in next round's competition in, e.g., nanoelectronics.
In the field of carbon nanotu-bes, Prof. Xie Sishen et al., of
the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), have
succeeded in preparing "very long" (2-3 mm) well-aligned
nanotube arrays. Prof. Fan Shoushan's group, of Tsinghua University,
on the other hand, made gallium nitride nanowires via a carbon
nanotube-confined reaction. They also succeeded in planting nanotubes
in regular patterns onto a microchip. Recently, there are also
spectacular advances in Peking University and in the Institute
of Metals, CAS, along these lines.
Following the first total synthesis by Chinese groups of scientists
in the sixties, recent ad-vances in life sciences have covered
the sequencing of a number of genes for Chinese mi-norities as
well as the cloning of disease-related genes, e.g., one specifically
related to deaf-ness. I would also like to mention the isolation
of potent Chinese herbal medicine, the anti-malarial artemisinin
and its methoxy derivatives are but one example.
Looking back to the mid-20th century, I would like to mention the recently deceased Chinese Academician, Prof. Wang Gan-Chang, who advanced independently in the early sixties the idea of inertial confinement fusion via the use of ultra-short laser pulses.
The design and manufacture of the so far unrivaled nonlinear optical crystals that operate in the UV/VUV region, especially BBO and LBO, has been another admirable achievement in the eighties through nineties. Both have already been widely used all over the world. They have very high damage threshold and were scheduled for use in two LLNL huge laser de-vices.
b) Basic research is being urged to provide an important basis for innovating and upgrad-ing the conventional industries.
Under this category, I wish to cite the breeding of rice and other crops by Prof. Yu Zeng-Liang, of the Anhui Institute of Plasma Physics, CAS, through medium energy ion bombard-ment of their seeds. The result is an increase of 25% in yield of rice and much higher resis-tance to damage by water-logging. The technique has been successfully adopted in hundreds of thousand hectares.
Another example came with oil reservoir geophysics. CAS Member Liu Guang-Ding, with his colleagues, Dr. Yang Chang-Chun and others, of the Institute of Geophysics, CAS, ad-vanced a theory for exploiting oil in thin-bedded layers, especially a 3-dimensional prestack-ing migration theory, which later developed into a set of software and became extremely suc-cessful in the exploitation of new oilfields. The accuracy of prediction for the reservoir depth could be as high as 2 thousandths and the yield per well up 100 times.
c) Basic research should pose radically new ideas for implementing
the national strategies of "vitalizing the country via science
and technology, education" and "sustainable develop-ment".
The projects on Global Change, Biodiversity, Water Conservancy,
Environmentally-benign or Green Chemistry, the Science of Complexity
and Biocomplexity, Financial Mathematics and Management etc.,
all fall into this category.
About 6 years ago, we endorsed Prof. Peng Shi-Ge of Shandong University to divert his study of backward stochastic differential equations, a pure mathematics project, to applica-tions in option pricing theory. The result is a nonlinear theory that encompasses the linear theory previous advanced by Black and Scholes. Peng's work also induced a surge in the study of financial math in China.
d) We fully understand that basic research leads not only to innovation, but also to "brand new" originality. Although totally original ideas are very rare, they may often exert epoch-making influences, philosophically, or material-wise.
The Chinese science communities pay our most esteemed tribute
to great scientists of this century, such as Albert Einstein.
His eventful findings are exemplary that basic research can serve
as a mighty weapon for mankind in continuously probing into the
material world and remaking it according to our motive.
e) Last but not the least, it is a compelled duty for the basic
research sector in China to foster and bring up senior scientists
and engineers that are in severe shortage throughout China, as
a rapidly developing country. Following mature experiences of
developed coun-tries, a major fraction of future senior scientists
and engineers of China will emerge only as a result of basic research
training.
For the last 12 years, within the scope of the National Science
Foundation of China (NSFC), about 15 per cent of general projects
each year are allocated to scientists under the age of 35. Young
grantees under this category totaled over 6,000. Furthermore,
since 1964, a Distinguished Young Scientists Program has been
implemented, with 120-180 grantees each year. These endeavors
have been effective in alleviating the shortage of senior S&T
person-nel to some extent, although still a long way from fulfilling
the present needs. It is gratifying that the government has recently
approved more intensive measures.
From the above discussion, we all admit that basic research is pertinent to several national goals. To best implement these goals, care should be taken to allocate the national input of R&D resources adequately. The consensus is that, first, R&D/GDP should be raised from the present 0.69% to a near-term to 1.5%. Second, spending for basic research should be lifted from the present 6% of total R&D to 10% in the near future. Third, it is advisable to allocate at least one-third of basic research spending through peer review processes. Fourth, the ratio of "pure basic" to "applied basic" research should be adjusted from time to time to an appro-priate proportion. In other words, we have to choose a trade-off between today and tomor-row. (Thus, for over 10 years since the founding of NSFC, the ratio of pure to applied re-search was kept at about 30/70. Since the inauguration in 1998 of the '973' program, which is under the Ministry of Science and Technology and is more mission-oriented, NSFC's em-phasis has undergone some tuning. For example, the pure research input for the year 1998 was deliberately tuned up so as to realize a pure/applied ratio of 42.5/57.5).
China's present opportunity for modernization of the country and its science sector is rare and precious. During our endeavor for modernization, we have much to learn from the invaluable experience of our colleagues from the United States. This is why we are so eagerly looking forward to this Beijing seminar. I wish the seminar every success!
Thank you very much!