On January 30, 2013, Former Director Li-jun Wan of the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, and the current director, Deqing Zhang, who took office just this month, visited RIKEN's Wako campus to sign a memorandum of understanding on research collaboration between the two institutions.

In the morning, the former and current directors of ICCAS met with RIKEN President Ryoji Noyori, exchanging information and opinions on subjects such as the current state of scientific research in China and Japan. Following this, Director Zhang and RIKEN Executive Director Maki Kawai conducted the signing ceremony in the presence of former Director Wan, President Noyori, RIKEN Executive Director Kenji Oeda, and RIKEN Advanced Science Institute Director Kohei Tamao.

Executive Director Kawai gave an address at the ceremony, where she looked back on the history of collaboration between the two institutions and called for further cooperation involving exchanges of personnel and joint research. She expressed the hope that these exchanges would contribute to society in a wide range of areas, such as solutions to global issues including environmental and resource problems and the realization of a sustainable society.

Following her address, former Director Wan spoke, expressing his appreciation for the collaboration between RIKEN and ICCAS spanning three decades. He stated that friendship is steadily growing between Japan and China in the area of science, and stressed the importance of scientists from the two institutions working together not only for the development of their own organizations, but also to contribute to the development of the two societies. He expressed his hope that collaboration would be further strengthened in the future.

In the afternoon, the visitors were taken on a tour of the Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory, Condensed Molecular Materials Laboratory, Surface and Interface Science Laboratory, Yu Initiative Research Unit, Nakamura Laboratory, and Bioinspired Material Research Team, Functional Soft Matter Research Group. They were given a presentation on the research conducted at each of the six laboratories, and exchanged opinions enthusiastically on how future collaboration might be realized.

In 2007, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ICCAS and the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, and based on the new MoU, the collaboration will be further strengthened and developed through joint research and personnel exchanges, with a view to establishing a joint center.

About the ICCAS

The Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), which was founded in 1956, is an institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences located in Beijing. It is a multi-disciplinary research institute dedicated to basic research in broad fields of chemical sciences, and it now has three State Key Laboratories and seven CAS Key Laboratories. It has more than 450 employees, and more than 1,000 postdocs and graduate The major research areas at ICCAS include polymer sciences, physical chemistry, organic chemistry and analytical chemistry.