Chinese Life Scientists Society in the UK: Past, Present and Prospect

Dr Qihe XU

        Chinese Life Scientists Society in the UK (abbreviated as the Society or CLSS-UK) is a non-profitable academic organisation, whose membership includes Chinese researchers across the life science field. It was founded with the authorisation of Education Section, Chinese Embassy in the UK, and with support from the Chinese Students Scholars Association in the UK. CLSS-UK aims at facilitating the communication and collaboration among Chinese life scientists in the UK and in the motherland China.

        The History of CLSS-UK: The Society was founded in 1992. Annual Conference was the main form of the organisation in the first 10 years. CLSS-UK has also actively participated in many other programmes, such as the Spring Bud Programme, to promote the development of life sciences in China. Past Presidents of the Society include Dr Zihe RAO, Dr Fangzhen SUN, Dr Xiaoping GAO, Dr Jinrong PENG, Dr Ming LEI, Dr Min WU, Dr Qijun ZHANG, Dr Ningwen ZHU, Dr Wei WANG, Dr Xiaopeng LI, Dr Shijie CAI, Dr Xin LU and Dr Henglong HU. In the past 15 years, CLSS-UK has taken on great initiatives, working passionately towards the aforementioned goals of the Society. It has played an irreplaceable role in maintaining UK's world-leading position in life sciences and enhancing the development of life sciences in China. It is especially remarkable that, in recent years, as more and more Chinese life scientists come to work abroad, CLSS-UK has evolved dramatically, with an ever-increasing size of member population, including tens of internationally renowned professors and programme leaders, hundreds of senior scientists, and thousands of research fellows, post-docs, and PhD students. Our members have been enjoying an ever-increasing visibility in all over the UK, from the traditional academic strongholds London, Oxford and Cambridge, to virtually all corners of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition to the wide geographic coverage, the Society has boasted an increasing disciplinary coverage too, from clinical medicine to laboratory research, from traditional disciplines to emerging studies, from basic life science to bioengineering, from academia to related business and administration. This has, on one hand, provided the crucial prerequisite to organising multi-level, interdisciplinary, high-standard local or national events for members; on the other hand, it also posed new challenge to the administrative framework of the Society. During the past 4 years, chaired by Professor Xin LU and Dr Henglong HU, respectively, a two-year chairmanship with a standing committee serving as the core managerial team has been explored. A continuous discussion on the current status and reform directions of the Society has been carried out within and beyond the CLSS-UK standing committee. Conclusions have been drawn as follow: (i) to achieve better performance, the standing committee should strive for better representation of the changing composition of our membership, taking both diverse geographic and disciplinary coverage into account; (ii) to improve service to members, the Society should appreciate the different needs of junior and senior members and design appropriate mechanisms to serve them; (iii) to facilitate China-UK collaboration, the Society should encourage members who have returned to China to form associations keeping interaction with the Society.

        The Present Status of CLSS-UK: As one of the oldest and largest Chinese professional societies in the UK, CLSS-UK currently has around 5000 members. Many senior members have been playing leading roles in a wide range of fields. In China, Founding Chairman of CLSS-UK, Professor Zihe RAO, is now an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and is President of Nankai University. Former President Fangzhen SUN used to be Director of Institute for Developmental Biology CAS. Former standing committee members Dr George Fu GAO and Dr Bin GAO are current Director and Chair of a centre in Institute of Microbiology CAS, respectively. Also at CAS, one of our senior members, Dr Huiru TANG, has been enrolled into the Hundred of Talents Program and is at the frontier of China’s research on metabonomics. In the UK, Professor Qingbo XU at King’s College London has founded one of the biggest vascular biology research centres in Europe and is the Chair of two major research programmes focusing stem cells. Past CLSS-UK Chairman Dr Wei WANG is the leading inventor and programme leader in research of the third generation of computerised tomography technology. Dr Zhanfeng CUI and Dr Mingqing DU have become the first Chinese who are appointed full professors at Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, respectively. Former CLSS-UK president, Professor Xin LU has been appointed the first Chinese Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Professor Ziheng YANG, University College London, has become the first British Chinese awarded the title of FRS (Fellow of Royal Society), due to his outstanding contribution to the theory of molecular evolution. In addition to these outstanding academics, CLSS-UK also has members who are taking on senior administrative jobs in biomedical enterprises, including Past Presidents Dr Henglong HU, Dr Xiaopeng LI, and current Vice President Dr Mingqiang ZHANG. Finally, as an example of CLSS-UK members serving the motherland, current standing committee member Dr Xiongzhong RUAN (University College London) has been actively involved in the Spring Bud Programme. He is appointed President Assistant of Chongqing University, supervising a National Key Project of China, and has trained many junior researchers in China…

        The present Chairman of CLSS-UK, Dr Qihe XU, has been elected to the Standing Committee for 6 years, serving as Secretary-General and Vice Chair in the past 4 years. He is a Principal investigator and Lecturer in the Department of Renal Medicine at King’s College London and is an internationally recognised nephrologists, cell biologist and activist in promoting collaboration between EU and China on the modernisation of traditional Chinese medicine.  The three Vice Chairmen (Executive, Secretariat, Medical Industry) are Dr Shiyu YANG, Dr Xin FANG and Dr Mingqiang ZHANG. Special appointments have been made to Prof Mingqing DU and Prof Qingbo XU as Honorary Chairmen, who join the Founding Chairman Prof Zihe RAO and other former CLSS-UK Chairs, to form the Advisory Committee, which is committed to the supervision of CLSS-UK’s social and academic activities. The Standing Committee is the ultimate decision-making authority of the Society. It elects members from all across the UK and represents members from different geographic and disciplinary areas. In practice, Chairman also appoints some Executive Committee members to assist the work of the Standing Committee. Departments within the Society includes Finance, Secretariat, the Chinese Life Sciences Academy and the Corresponding Members’ Club, etc. Dr Xuebin DONG is the Treasurer. Dr Xin FANG is the Secretary-General. The Secretariat is in charge of the housekeeping issues, coordinating the management of the Society. The Chinese Life Sciences Academy is a department of CLSS-UK for senior members. It is responsible for the academic activities and external collaborations of the Society. Its select committee will carry out the qualification and invitation procedure for its members. Divisions are set within the Academy according to sub-disciplines so as to better collaborate and coordinate with relevant partners. The Corresponding Members Club will be in charge of the events and activities for members who have already returned China, in close collaboration with CLSS-UK and its Academy. CLSS-UK’s Chairman and Standing Committee invite Professor Mingqing DU to be the first President of the Academy, Professor Qingbo XU to be the President-elect. Former Standing Committee Member, Dr Fu GAO, Director of Institute of Microbiology CAS, and former employee of the Education Section, Chinese Embassy, Mr Zhongbo YANG, are invited to coordinate the affairs of the Corresponding Members Club. President of the Academy and the coordinators of the Corresponding Members Club are responsible to the Chairman and Standing Committee of the Society.

        The Prospect:  CLSS-UK is currently at an important historical turning point. Firstly, the reform within the Committees has been unprecedented. Two third of the current committee members are new faces. With the strong support by the old committee, the transitional phase has been a success, with experiences inherited and new enthusiasm evoked. But the current arrangement of the committee still needs to be improved, for example, the lack of committee members from Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as an imbalance in gender and areas of research. We cordially welcome nomination and self-nomination for opening standing committee vacancies. Secondly, with the support and proposal from Minister-Counsellor Yongda WANG, Educational Section, the Chinese Embassy, CLSS-UK is ready to launch a new department, the Chinese Life Sciences Academy. The mission of the Academy is to meet the special interests of senior members, and to promote and enhance CLSS-UK’s academic collaborations with other institutions. As many new initiatives, this new idea requires a lot of actual input to materialise. Especially we need to pay attention to the roles of the Academy in both internal and external affairs of the Society, making sure that the Academy should both be fairly autonomous and remain an inseparable part of the Society. Mechanisms should be established to maintain an effective connection between the Academy and the Standing Committee and to ensure the Academy to provide help and guidance to junior members. Thirdly, as CLSS-UK is undergoing a particular historical transition, the Secretariat has a greater responsibility to undertake. The core issues will be institutionalisation of administration and improvement of online database and internet service. Fourthly, a favourable financial system is a key to a robustly growing organisation. The financial burden has been extraordinarily heavy due to the newly founded departments and the expansion of the committees. Therefore, Committee members must think and act actively in attracting funding from governments, industry and charities. Implementation of designated spending control is to be combined with strict and institutionalised central financial management. Finally, the launch of Corresponding Members Club in China has been a new initiative too. The organisation and management of the Club should both enjoy autonomy and receive support and supervision from CLSS-UK. I sincerely wish this new programme enjoy a long-term success and look forward to the exciting future jointly constructed by CLSS-UK members both in China and in the UK!

        In conclusion, the core mission of the CLSS-UK 2007-2009 Committee is service to members. By strengthening teamwork, we will shoulder the responsibilities to serve both our motherland China and the UK, striving for a bigger contribution to the reconstruction of the science and technology development in China and in the academic exchange between China and the UK.

 (Translated by Yueyue Zhang)