The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President's International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) Scholar Gathering took place in Beijing on June 27. HE Hongping, Vice President of CAS, attended and addressed the event, which brought together 21 overseas scholars from 15 countries. Prof. Simon George, Emeritus Professor at Macquarie University, Australia, and a visiting scholar at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIGCAS), traveled from Guangzhou for the event as one of the invited scholars.

HE Hongping extended a warm welcome to all participants and expressed sincere gratitude for their long-standing research collaboration with CAS. He noted that PIFI, as CAS’s flagship program for promoting global research mobility, had played a significant role in pooling global expertise, establishing scientific cooperation and promoting science communication around the globe. He invited PIFI fellows to share suggestions to improve the initiative’s services and expand its global reach.

As one of the guest speakers representing PIFI fellows, Simon George shared insights from his research and life experience in China. He recounted two stays at GIGCAS funded by PIFI, during which he delivered academic seminars, guided young researchers on thesis writing, and built enduring research partnerships with multiple teams at the institute. Drawing from his own experience in China, he commended the country’s substantial investment in scientific research and young scientists, voicing great optimism about the future of marine geoscience in China. During the gathering, he took part in immersive Chinese cultural activities, such as calligraphy, a tea/meditation session, and Chinese folk music. “I found it very valuable to talk with other PIFI fellows, and with some of the other CAS staff who were present,” he said, “It is clear that the PIFI scheme works in a wide variety of ways, all of which foster research engagement between international institutions and CAS institutes.”

A world-renowned organic geochemist, Simon George has spent months conducting collaborative research at GIGCAS under the PIFI scheme alongside Prof. WANG Yunpeng and other scientists. Their joint work has lifted the institute’s research capacity and global engagement in key fields including deep-Earth processes and planetary habitability, and hydrocarbon accumulation under multi-sphere interactions.

Prof. Simon George delivered a speech.

Group photo