The Awarding Ceremony of the 2011 “China Friendship Award” was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the morning of September 29, 2011. Zhang Dejiang, Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Zhang Jianguo, Head of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs read out the decision on behalf of the Chinese government about conferring “Friendship Award” to 50 foreign experts. Two Foreign Members of CAE, namely Prof. Pierre Tiollais and Prof. Jacques P. Caen, both French medical experts, were honored with the award.

On the afternoon of September 30, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao met with the award-winning foreign experts, thanking them for their outstanding contributions to China’s reform and opening up as well as modernization. Wen also expressed greetings to all foreign experts, international friends, as well as their relatives who work in China. Wen stressed that, since China’s economic development has reached a new starting point, we have to rely on scientific development pattern as well as advanced science and technology to achieve development that is of higher level, of better quality, and is more sustainable. In order to achieve this requirement, the key is to have high-quality personnel. Wen said, on the one side, we need to train large numbers of talented personnel in China. On the other side, we also have to place emphasis on the introduction of more high-quality foreign personnel to join the workforce, start their businesses and seek development in China. We believe that their coming to China will provide strong intellectual support for the modernization in China.

“China Friendship Award” was established by the Chinese government for foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the economic construction and social development in China. The fifty award-winning foreign experts this year come from 21 countries, with their professional and industrial backgrounds mainly covering industry, agriculture, energy, environmental protection, education, science and technology, health care, culture and sports. Since 1991, a total of 1199 foreign experts coming from 62 countries have been conferred “China Friendship Award” by the Chinese government.

Prof. Pierre Tiollais is a member of French Academy of Sciences and a fellow of French Academy of Medical Sciences, and was elected Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1998. Prof. Tiollais is an internationally well-known scientist, and a member of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). He is specialized in HBV molecular biology and is the first one who has succeeded in the full cloning of HBV genome and reported its complete sequence, which has pushed HBV study to a new, molecule phase.

Prof. Jacques P. Caen is a corresponding member of French Academy of Sciences, a fellow of French Academy of Medical Sciences, and a member of French Academy of Technical Sciences, who was elected Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2001. Prof. Jacques P. Caen has tutored quite a few Chinese researchers in their study for doctoral degrees and provided Chinese researchers with further cultivation and training. He published dozens of papers by co-authoring with Chinese scholars. Also, he and Chinese scholars co-organized academic seminars for several times, and established a number of cooperation labs with Chinese research and development institutes. (By Zhu Yu, November 2011; translated by Liu Chang)