Chinese scientist becomes president of Pacific Science Association

Fu Congbin, a Chinese scientist engaged in the studies of climate change, was elected as the new president of Pacific Science Association (PSA), the organization announced Sunday in Ginowan, Japan.

"The PSA is involved with disciplines of various kinds and I will work to realize more exchanges and cooperation among different areas of study and wish to contribute to the sustainable development in the Pacific region," Fu told Xinhua.

The 67-year-old professor is one of the leading Chinese scientist working on climate variability and dynamics and a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"China Association for Science and Technology is an adhering organization of the PSA. China will make more contributions to the PAS in future," Fu said.The PSA, founded in 1920, is a non- governmental scholarly organization that seeks to advance science, technology, and sustainable development in and of the Asia-Pacific region.

Chinese scientists have been actively participating in the regional academic organization. Zhou Guangzhao, former President of China Academy of Science, was the president of PSA during the 1990s.

Fu has been vice-president of the PSA and member of its executive council for some recent years. "Science is for the benefit of society," Fu said, "the PSA has recently set up some task forces to get itself further involved with local science organization and work on some specific issues."

Members of the Hawaii-based organization has also realized that more interaction with other science groups within the region would also help the 87-year-old PAS regain its youth, Fu added.

Fu, who will at the post of the PSA president from 2007 to 2011, has been engaged in studies including air-sea interaction, air- land interaction, and climate-ecosystem interaction on global and regional scales. He has put special attention to the modeling and diagnosis of the variations of monsoon system and its response and feedback to earth system dynamics.

PSA is composed of both individual scientist members and national and regional member organizations including China, Australia, France, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, a range of Pacific island nations and others.

Source: Xinhua