The launch ceremony of the Chinese Alliance of Universities for Earth System Science (CAUESS) was held at Tsinghua University on December 8. Founding members include Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, Tianjin University, and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
The Launch Ceremony of CAUESS
Wu Huaqiang, vice president of Tsinghua University, hopes that the Alliance would become a high-level open platform for serving national strategies, cultivating top-tier talent, and leading scientific and technological innovation. Accordingly, this platform would offer Chinese expertise to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Academician Chen Deliang, Tsinghua University Xinghua Distinguished Chair Professor and the Alliance’s inaugural chairman, outlined the context, rationale, mission, and developmental framework for the establishment of the ACUESS.
Video messages of congratulations were delivered by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis; Wendy Broadgate, global director of Future Earth; and Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
A panel discussion titled “Earth System Science and the Alliance in My Vision” featured Academician Chen Deliang; Academician Fu Congbin, director of the Institute for Climate and Global Change Research at Nanjing University; Academician Liu Congqiang, dean of the School of Earth System Science at Tianjin University; and Academician Guo Yike, provost and executive vice-president of HKUST. The session was moderated by Ding Aijun, assistant president of Nanjing University and dean of the Nanjing-Helsinki Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Science.
A second featured panel discussion themed “Opportunities and Challenges in Earth System Science” gathered Academician Qin Dahe, former director of the China Meteorological Administration; Academician Guo Huadong, researcher at the Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Academician Fu Bojie, researcher at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Academician Xia Jun, dean of the Institute of Water Security at Wuhan University; Academician Zhang Xiaoye, researcher at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences; and Academician Huang Jianping, professor at the College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University. The discussion was chaired by Lu Mengqian, director of the Otto Poon Center for Climate Resilience and Sustainability at HKUST.
Representatives from the four founding universities—Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, Tianjin University, and HKUST—signed a cooperation agreement. The signing ceremony was presided over by Professor Luo Yong, Chair of the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University.
The event brought together more than a hundred participants, including representatives from ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Emergency Management, the China Meteorological Administration, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, along with scholars from peer institutions and representatives from relevant departments of Tsinghua University.
Editor: Li Han
