MPS／CAS Group on Analysis Partner Geometric

The Partner Group works on topics in geometric analysis in cooperation with the corresponding research group at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig.     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on Plant Molecular Physiology and Signal Transduction

Rice is mankind's most important food crop ?the staple diet for half of the world's population ?and is also tremendously important for Chinese food production. Hence, understanding how rice grows and interacts with its environment, which often adversely affects plant development and crop yield, is of prime importance. The Partner Group on Plant Molecular Physiology and Signal Transduction investigates how central regulatory molecules, such as hormones, determine developmental processes in rice. The group plays an important role in China's plant genome program that leads to the discovery of new gene functions, which may direct the way to better adapted crop plants with an increased yield potential. Besides rice, the little weed Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) is used as a second model system for experimental studies.     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on Nanotechnology in Catalysis

The first contact between Bao Xinhe and the Fritz Haber Institute (FHI) of the Max Planck Society goes back to 1989, when he was a Humboldt Scholarship holder in Germany. He worked at the FHI with Gerard Ertl on the surface and catalytic properties of Ag-cluster until 1995, when he returned to China and joined the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The cooperation with the FHI continued in 2000, when a Partner Group was established under the leadership of Robert SchlogI and Bao Xinhe. The group is devoted to the application of nano-related technologies in catalysis, with emphasis on controlled fabrication and dynamic characterization of nano-structured metallic particles and porous materials. In the past years, the cooperation has focused on various carbon nanotubes with special aligned structure and well-defined silver nano-particles in mesoporous materials. The nanostructured catalysts show high performance in methane activation at low temperature and in     

MPS／CAS Partner Groups in China

MPS/CAS Partner Groups have become an important backbone of Sino-Germancollaboration, and they are considered to function as a nucleus for defining topics for the envisaged next generation of cooperation ?as seen from the followingreports and future plans.     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on Colloid and Interface Science

The Partner Group on Colloid and Interface Science is based on the International Joint Laboratory, established in the former Beijing Institute of Photographic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and was incorporated into the Center for Molecular Science of the Institute of Chemistry, CAS in 1999. The Partner Group aims at research on molecular assembly of biomimetic membranes and the synthesis of nano-structured materials by way of training younger Chinese scientists and making use of the advanced facilities in Germany. Both sides cooperate closely in sectors in which they have a common interest to push forward the development of related sciences in China. The group leader, Li Junbai, has received many awards and has obtained much financial support inside China. On the German side, the Partner Group is hosting or participating in several research and development projects commissioned by the Max Planck Society and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The Partner Group has thus secured goo     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on Nanostructured Materials

As one of the first Partner Groups which were initiated to foster scientific exchange and interaction between the Max Planck Society (MPS) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Partner Group led by Lu Ke was established on April 1, 1999. During the past five years, the group has received substantial support from the CAS for equipment and from the MPS for personnel and travel expenses. Extensive and productive collaborations between the research staff and students of the Partner Group with several professors (departments) in the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research (MPI-MF) have led to significant advances in synthesis, mechanical properties, melting and superheating of nanostructured metals. The research is well recognized internationally and a substantial number of publications in high quality, peer-reviewed journals (including Science and Physical Review Letters) have resulted. At the MPI-MF, Ke Lu has collaborated with Manfred Ruhle and Reinhard Luck on crystallization studies, with Eric     

Prospects of CAS／MPS Cooperation

In the next 20 years, collaboration between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPS) will meet with great strategic opportunities. We should seek the chance to innovatively improve our cooperation. This could include further improvement of the mechanisms, expansion of areas, actively seeking new patterns, and strengthening our research on science and technology foresight.     

MPS／CAS Cooperation on Solid State Chemistry

The cooperation between Zhao Jingtai and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids was initiated immediately after the research field Inorganic Chemistry (headed by Rudiger Kniep) started its work in Dresden. The first contact was established when Zhao Jingtai came from the Xiamen University as a Max Planck fellow. At that time, the chemistry of the intermetallic compounds of rare-earth metals was chosen as a topic of joint investigations with Yuri Grin. Later, the solid state chemistry of the borophosphates was added to the program of concerted research in the group of Zhao Jingtai and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. The cooperation was intensified after the move of Zhao Jingtai to the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics and the establishment of an Inorganic Materials Chemistry and Physics Group there. The results of the investigations performed from 1999 to 2003 were published in more than 25 scientific papers and more than ten contributions to scientific conferences.     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on Cosmology

The Partner Group does research in cosmology, focussing on the quantitative modeling of the structure and evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters, the pattern of galaxies and of larger structures. The usual approach in this field is the dark matter paradigm, i.e. the assumption that the basic structures are laid out in a matter component of particles which interact only gravitationally. Numerical simulations of large scale and high resolution are used to follow the evolution of condensations of dark matter particles during cosmological evolution. Analytic models and detailed statistical investigations of astronomical data sets supplement the numerical work.     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on the Development of Mechanical Knowledge in China

China's long and continuous cultural tradition offers scholars the special opportunity for cross-cultural studies in the long-term development of science. The Partner Group focuses on an exemplary case of such long-term development, the development of mechanical knowledge in China from antiquity to the early modern period. Research within the Partner Group is guided by a number of specific research questions, in particular the question of the interaction between practical and theoretical knowledge and the interaction between domestic and external knowledge traditions over a period of more than a millennium. In order to establish a cross-cultural perspective on the emergence and development of experiential science, the research is being coordinated with the current research project on the history of mechanical thinking at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on Interfacial and Amorphous Structures in Advanced Ceramics

The scientific work of the Partner Group is aiming to comprehend the fundamental properties of internal interfaces that play a key role in the microstrucfure development and in the thermal, mechanical, and functional properties of ceramics. The group leader had strong interactions for over 10 years with German partners in MPI-MF. He pioneered analytical methods to peer into the nanometer-scale amorphous structure at interface with Manfred Ruhle in Stuttgart and comprehended the sliding structure to achieve superplasticity in ceramics with Fritz Aldinger via a Japan-based international program. By complementing each others the experience and expertise in the highly multidisciplinary research on advanced ceramics and by hosting young Chinese researchers to learn how to operate the advanced facilities available in Germany, both sides are confident that this partnership will further strengthen to promote the cooperative research at the frontier of ceramic science.     

Workshop on CAS—MPS Cooperation Strategy

CAS and the Max Planck So-ciety (MPS) held a work-shop on cooperation strat-egy April 3 4, 2003 at the CASShanghai Institutes for BiologicalSciences (SIBS). The event includeddiscussion on S&T policies and stra-tegic plans, exchange of bilateral co-operation experiences, and advice onseizing opportunities and takingchallenges.In his speech, CAS Vice Presi-dent Chen Zhu talked about theThree Strategies and Three-StepPlan of CAS. He expressed the CASwishes of seeing more, fruitf…     

Ecosystems and Biodiversity Research

The common goals and the almost perfect complement of the initiatives taken in parallel at Kunming and at several Max Planck sites could serve as valuable starting points for further promoting the CAS/MPS partnership in all matching areas of ecological research.     

Cooperating on a Solid Foundation（1985-1994）

The second extension of the agreement between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Society for the years 1985-1987 marked the continuation of the successful cooperation of the past ten years. On August 28,1984, the Secretaries General Gu Yijian and Dietrich Ranft exchanged the freshly signed contracts in Munich.     

Pioneers in Cooperation （selection）

Project-oriented cooperation within the framework of the CAS-MPSagreement began in the early 1980s. Its methods differed according to scientific needs and included workshops and seminars, field research, overland expeditions, exchanges of materials and samples, and the training of young scientists and engineers. The German Research Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China provided special funding for many of these projects.