On December 31, 2015, at the invitation of Zheng Chunmiao, Dean of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, South University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTech), Chai Yucheng, Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Earth Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), visited SUSTech, and gave a lecture entitled "Strategy for Disciplinary Development of Earth Sciences and Preferred Development Fields in the Thirteenth-Five Period"--the 11th session of the Nanshan Distinguished Lecture on the Environment, at No. 1111 lecture hall of the library. Among over 30 attendees were all faculty members from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, as well as faculty and students from other schools and departments.

Chai, who majored in geology at the universities, has worked at the Department of Earth Sciences, NSFC for nearly 20 years since 1996. He has rich experience in earth science research and project management, as well as unique insight into the strategy of earth science development in China.

In his lecture, Chai briefly expounded the definition of earth sciences as well as the main content and purpose of earth science research, and introduced the challenges and frontier of earth sciences. Earth sciences focus on the structure, properties and processes of the earth, the law of earth motion and the law of earth evolution. Developing earth sciences is intended to satisfy human curiosity about the earth and maintain the development of human civilization. As the earth is a complex system with multiple temporal and spatial scales, earth science development is slower compared to other disciplines. How to integrate different processes, different temporal and spatial scales, and different disciplinary fields to look into the law of earth motion and the law of earth evolution is a major challenge for earth sciences.

Subsequently, from the perspective of research output, Chai introduced earth science development in China and compared it with the development in developed countries. China's technology circles are still hesitating, and the unremitting efforts of several generations are required to achieve an overall leap in China's original innovation ability, he noted.

At last, Chai elaborated on the strategy for the academic development of earth sciences and preferred development fields in the thirteenth five-year period, and offered advice on earth science development in SUSTech.

Following the lecture, SUSTech's teachers and students communicated their concerns with Chai.

Lecturer's profile: Chai Yucheng obtained a bachelor's degree in geology from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) in 1982, obtained a master's degree and a doctor's degree in structural geology from China University of Geosciences (Beijing) in 1986 and 1989 respectively, was engaged in postdoctoral research at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1990 to 1992, and continued his postdoctoral research at University of Alabama from 1993 to 1994, and worked as an associate professor at China University of Geosciences (Beijing) from 1995 to 1996.

He has worked as deputy head of discipline, deputy head of division and executive deputy head of division at the Department of Earth Sciences, NSFC since 1996, and is currently executive deputy director and a researcher at the department. He organized the research on the development strategies of earth sciences in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth five-year periods.