Beijing Women's Federation

The launch ceremony for the science and technology professionals' committee of the Beijing Women Professors' Association (BWPA) was held online on October 24. Chen Yanping, Vice-President of the Beijing Women's Federation, Sun Zhaoping, head of the Liaison Department of the BWF, attended the meeting. Attendees also included heads and members of the board of directors of the BWPA, special guests and female professors from universities.

Guests attend the online launch ceremony for the science and technology professionals committee of the Beijing Women Professors' Association. [Beijing Women's Federation]

President of the BWPA He Haiyan said the science and technology professionals' committee is composed of 13 academicians, scholars funded by Chang Jiang Scholars Program, and distinguished young scholars who work in colleges and universities. The committee will implement the plans of the Beijing Action for Women's Action in Scientific and Technological Innovation project and will make full use of women professors' power to promote key technological breakthroughs, sci-tech achievement transformation, cultivate professionals and foster strategic innovative strengths, as well as carry out cross-field and cross-region collaborative activities, forums and think-tank consultations, popular science services and training.

Chen fully affirmed BWPA's active role in carrying out the Beijing Action, and pointed out that the committee's establishment is another important measure to encourage female professors to further their participation in the capital's sci-tech innovation.

She emphasized that in view of the new development pattern in which domestic and foreign markets boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, it is of great significance to guide women to hold up "half of the sky" in accelerating the nation's sci-tech innovation with the spirit of self-reliance and self-improvement. The association has given full play to its role as a platform to promote the transformation of sci-tech research results into products, reflecting women professors' sense of responsibility, mission and urgency to earnestly undertake historical tasks.

She hoped that the new committee will strengthen cross-field, cross-university, cross-disciplinary, and cross-team innovation with an international vision, and pay attention to the country's strategic deployment and direction to tackle problems in core technological research that hinder the country's development.

Li Yanqiu, the newly-appointed director of the committee, also a professor of the Beijing Institute of Technology, expressed the willingness of female professors and scientific and technological professionals involved to pursue innovative development in the new era, and give full play to their role in personnel training, innovation and service to society under the leadership of the BWF and the BWPA.

A seminar on the transformation of sci-tech research achievements was held after the launch ceremony. During the seminar, Hao Yufang, a professor at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and academician of the American Academy of Nursing, Pei Li, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University and winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (NSFDYS), and Chen Ling, a Beijing Normal University professor and NSFDYS honoree, gave keynote speeches on digital healthcare, optical communication and photon integration, and the creation of inorganic frequency doubling materials under multi-disciplinary collaboration. Other guests shared their experience in research, imparting knowledge and cultivating people and transforming research results.