At 2:30 pm on September 29, 2019, a lecture entitled "Global Change, Sustainable Development and Surface-Earth System Science" was held in the Lakeside theater. The speaker of the report was Liu Congqiang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Executive vice Dean of CKC, Ge Jian, CKC deputy party secretary Li Wenteng, and winner of The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Professor Fu Pingqing were present at the lecture. Students from various departments of CKC also participated in the lecture.
At the beginning of the lecture, Academician Liu illustrated a general trend of global change and its significance, indicating that global changes encompass global environmental change and changes in the human social environment. He discussed the relationship between global environmental change and human living environment, and then elucidated the enormous impact of human engineering on global environment. Academician Liu believes that human beings are encroaching upon the environment they depend on. With respect to the fundamental issues facing humanity and the need for future research, Academician Liu emphasized the importance of sustainable development to students and sparked the students' inspiration about the future.
Then, Academician Liu introduced the composition, research direction, research content and frontier issues of Surface-Earth System Science to students. He mentioned that the problems to be solved of Surface-Earth System Science are multi-faceted and multi-angled. And it is futile to try to solve these problems in the ambit of a single discipline. Therefore interdisciplinary manners are indispensable in that process. Academician Liu also used this topic to aired out his notions on the existing cultivation system, and highlighted on the importance of molding fundamental knowledge during the undergraduate period to our fellow students.
Academician Liu mentioned that the Institute of Surface-Earth System Science now has a variety of advanced experimental equipment and cutting-edge research methods as well as excellent personnel training mechanisms. Shifting from research institutions to universities becomes a tendency among researchers. Universities will play an increasingly prominent role in research. By the ease of that, Academician Liu expressed his expectations for university education and students. He hoped that the university could better integrate the disciplines and the students could become compound talents and contribute to the construction of our motherland.
At the end of the report, secretary Li Wenteng summarized the report: “It is not only a wonderful science popularization, but also an excellent policy report. It is not only a lesson between professors and students, but a practical activity to understand the world and protect our homeland as well.” Mr. Li motivated students to think more about the relationship between the environment and human beings.
Summary: The inseparable relationship between the global environment and human society is obvious and the problems ahead of us are undoubtedly serious. As Academician Liu said: The biggest challenge facing mankind is himself. How to solve this problem is worthy of everyone's deep concerning, not to mention that us, as the best among our peers, should shoulder more responsibility. We should strive to be multi-crossing talents with multidisciplinary knowledge to undertake our mission of the times. So, ckcers, just fight!
Profile: Liu Congqiang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was in the hundred talents program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994. He was funded by The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 1996 and was the chief scientist of the National Climbing Project in 1998. He was elected as a Fellow of the International Geochemical Society in 2016 and Foreign Communications Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2017.
