World science laureates discuss marine tech in Sanya

Global scientists and experts including Nobel Prize winners gathered in Sanya to hold talks on cutting-edge marine science and technologies and their influences on walks of life on Thursday.

With a theme of "Smart Ocean and Future Agriculture", the two-day World Laureates Sanya Forum (WLS) attracted about 1000 participants. They included 21 leading foreign scientists – 12 of whom won the Nobel Prize and others the Turing Award, the Fields Medal, the Lasker Award and the Wolf Prize -- and 28 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, organizers said.

Li Jun, deputy-secretary of the CPC Hainan provincial committee, said as the only tropical island province in South China, Hainan has advantages in its geographical location and natural environment, and promises prosperous and rapid socioeconomic growth.

"We are striving to establish a social environment to benefit scientific research and innovation," Li said.

Hainan has rolled out an action plan to introduce 1 million talents with more open and effective mechanisms, Li said.

"We will continue to improve policies to promote service and make more efforts to provide medical care, housing and children's education for people in Hainan," Li said.

The forum, jointly organized by the Hainan provincial talent development bureau and the Sanya city government, aims to welcome global exchanges and cooperation on sectors including environmental science and marine technology and modern agriculture.

Hainan will set up platforms to serve scientific research and exchanges of top scientists around the world, Li said.

The province will promote the construction of a southern center for the national deep-sea technology base as well as the national South China seed breeding base, and it is building the International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone which provides international medical tourism services, a low-carbon environmental community and a gathering place for international organizations.

"We will also build key national laboratories and attract colleges and institutes at home and abroad to set up branches in Hainan, so as to launch high-level collaborative projects," Li said.

Randy Schekman, the 2013 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and vice-president of the World Laureates Association, said Chinese sciences have seen great development over the years.

"The important condition is not only the investment that the government is making, but the opportunities for independence, as young scholars need opportunities to express his or her own imagination and do science as they wish to," Schekman said.

David Gross, the 2004 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, said science flourishes with transparency, mobility and collaboration.

"We should let the WLS help to promote the free movement of people and ideas," he said.

During the forum, Hainan University appointed four Nobel Prize winners as the university's international consultants, and the China-Russian innovation base of the high-tech company Tus-Holdings signed an agreement with the Russian Academy of Science to build a collaborative base for innovation and startups in Sanya.

In addition, the World Laureates Association and the Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City signed an agreement on building a workstation in Sanya, aiming to offer a platform for top scientists to communicate about scientific research and support the development of the deep-sea technology industry.

"We see this as a starting point to promote the construction of the workstations with the intention of becoming a virtual or physical home for the world laureates and international destination for young scientists," Schekman said.

During the forum, scientists also discussed topics such as marine life and health industry, smart oceans, modern agriculture and the environmental industry, marine ecology, and science.