The Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), located in the city of Guangzhou in southern China, is one of China’s top research institutions in earth and environmental sciences. GIG’s predecessor is the Guangzhou branch of the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which was founded in 1987, and GIG’s current name came into use in 1994.GIG is dedicated to promoting sustainable economic and social development of China by contributing state-of-the-art scientific knowledge and technical support to addressing important issues regarding natural resources and environment. The research of the institute is organized around several areas, including organic geochemistry, elemental geochemistry, isotope geochemistry, environmental science and technology, and oil/gas and mineral resources, with research themes covering continental dynamics and lithospheric evolution, deep geological processes and system changes of earth, metallogenic regulation and dynamics of petroleum accumulation, marine geology and marginal sea evolution, environmental pollution and control, etc.
GIG is home to six laboratories at national, CAS’s, and provincial levels, namely the State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, the State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, the CAS Key Laboratory of Ocean and Marginal Sea Geology, the CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny, the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Protection and Resources Utilization, and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials. The institute also houses two laboratories jointly built with universities in Hong Kong, i.e. the Joint Laboratory for Chemical Geodynamics and the Joint Laboratory of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for the Environment. In addition, GIG has a science education center and a library, and publishes three journals.
Since the turn of the century, the institute has been honored with five second prizes of the National Natural Sciences Prizes and, as the principal contributing institution, 18 first prizes at provincial/ministerial level. Since 2000, the institute has published more than 8,000 papers, with more than 20 on Nature, Science, and PNAS.
The institute has about 250 full-time researchers, and offers two postdoctoral programs, six PhD programs and 11 MSc programs.
GIG enjoys active international exchanges, which is reflected by its frequent international visits, science projects in collaboration with overseas scientists, international awards and honorary titles received by its researchers, and important positions held by its personnel at international organizations and journals.
