Award winners pose for a photo during the "Green Talents" award ceremony in Berlin, Germany, on Oct. 27, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua/Shan Yuqi]
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) recently awarded 25 young international scientists, two of whom come from China, "Green Talents" prizes for their innovative ideas to promote sustainable development.
The "Green Talents" Award was initiated by the BMBF in 2009, and is aimed at collecting worldwide solutions for sustainable development in the environment and society. This year's theme is the "Ocean and Sea".
Minister of the BMBF Johanna Wanka told Xinhua, "as a very important global subject, sustainable development can be promoted with talents from different science disciplines and cultural backgrounds". Wanka stressed that the "Green Talents" award is also important to intensify scientific cooperation with China.
Liu Zhu, a Chinese award winner who now undertakes post-doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology in the United States, focuses on climate change and carbon emission studies. He said his research field concerns the challenges facing the whole world and the needs for global wisdom.
"China is making outstanding contributions to the reduction of carbon emissions with its technological developments," Liu said.
Each year "Green Talents" winners are invited by the BMBF to visit German scientific institutes and enterprises. Prize winners will also be invited to Germany next year by the BMBF for a 3-month academic stay as visiting scholars. This visit is to further their scientific cooperation with German scientific organizations.
This year the BMBF specifically invited all the "Green Talents" winners since 2009 to gather again in Berlin for an academic conference on sustainable development, with representatives from academies, politics and business.
Xue Bing, a Chinese scientist who got the award in 2011 for his research on the circular economy, chose to cooperate with two German academic institutes in 2012. He said,"With the connections made at that time, members from my research team now have academic communications in Germany."
This year a total of 25 prize winners were selected from about 750 competitors. About 182 young scientists from 51 countries and regions have been awarded "Green Talents" awards so far, with 22 of them coming from China.
Source: http://english.cri.cn/12394/20
