November 1, 2009 marked the 60 anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). A celebration ceremony was held at the Hall of People’s Congress on October 30 in Beijing. Chinese President HU Jintao sent a congratulation letter to the Academy.

In the letter HU urged the CAS to keep up its leading role in building China into an innovative country and contribute more to the scientific development.

Nearly 600 guests attended the celebration that included Chinese keystone scientists and people from all sectors of society.

LU Yongxiang, president of CAS stressed in his speech that CAS would dedicate itself to resolve key, strategic, prospective issues that affect China’s development in the long run and set the aim to become a world first-class national research institution by 2020.

About 30 national science institutions and organizations have sent their congratulatory telegrams and letters to CAS, including International Max Planck Research School, the French National Center for Scientific Research, United States National Academy of Sciences, and Russian Academy of Sciences, UNEP and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.