Nanotechnology in China is reviewed in this 2nd issue of TWAS Research Updates. Chunli Bai (TWAS Fellow 1997), executive vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and chief scientist for the Chinese National Steering Committee for Nanoscience and Related Technology, describes the efforts of Chinese scientists.
Since the early 1990s, China has been investing in nanoscience and nanotechnology research. It now has a network of more than 20 CAS institutes, 50 university institutes and some 300 commercial enterprises working in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology. A large and highly competent research team, estimated to number more than 3,000, with many scientists trained in Europe, Japan and the United States, means that China is ranked among the world’s top five countries in these rapidly developing fields.
China has embraced a national strategy for rejuvenating the country through rapid economic growth running parallel – and linked strongly to – education and science. By the end of 2020, China’s science and technological innovation ability will be greatly enhanced. The comprehensive ability of China’s basic science research, as well as that of various frontier fields, will be considerably strengthened. Although China is already considered a world-leader in some scientific endeavours, by 2020, it will have achieved more scientific and technological breakthroughs of global significance, qualifying the nation to join the ranks of the world’s most innovative countries. Among the fields that have enjoyed particularly rapid development in China in the past decade or so are nanoscience and nanotechnology – terms that refer to the growing knowledge base and technical framework for understanding and manipulating matter on a scale that ranges from the atomic to the cellular.
The article goes on to describe many advances made in nanotechnology by scientists in China, its global impact and the need to maintain standards. The full article is available for download at the TWAS website (Click on link below).
