Dr. Peter Raven Wins 2010 Friendship Award

Dr. Peter Raven, honorary director of the state key laboratoryResearch Center for Systematic and Evolutionary Botany under Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), received the 2010 Chinese Government Friendship Award on September 29, 2010.

Dr. Raven, a leading botanist and advocate of conservation and biodiversity with a notably international outlook, has been president of the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) since 1971, now a world-class center for botanical research, education, and horticulture display. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1977) and foreign academies of sciences in over 20 countries, including CAS.

Described by Timemagazine as a "Hero for the Planet," he has received numerous international and national prizes and awards, including the US National Medal of Science (2001), the highest award for scientific accomplishment in US.

Dr. Raven is the first person to propose and organize the extensive cooperation between CAS and American botanists. He proposed the Flora of China project (revised edition of the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae in English) in 1979, and carried it on since 1989. As the foreign co-editor of Flora of China, he played critical and indispensable roles on project proposing, edition organizing and financial supporting.

Flora of China is revising over 30,000 vascular plant species, leading to a contemporary, 50-volume account on all the plants of China, which will be completely published by the end of 2012. It will be the largest Flora in English by then, and is believed to acceleratethe internationalization of Chinese botanical research and improve the international recognition of Chinese botany and Chinese plants.

For all his distinguishable efforts into the development of Chinese botanical research, Dr. Raven was recommended by CAS for the Friendship Award of this year.

All the 50 foreign experts who won the 2010 Friendship Award, including Dr. Raven, and their families were met by Premier WEN Jiabao in the Great Hall of the People on the afternoon of September 30, 2010.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people, Premier WEN extended congratulations to the foreign experts, expressed gratitude for their outstanding contributions to China s modernization drive and conveyed greetings to all the foreign experts and friendly personnel working in China and their families.

The Friendship Award is established by the Chinese government especially for the foreign experts who make outstanding contributions to China s economic and social development. The 50 foreign experts winning the award this year come from 16 countries and work in the fields of industry and agriculture, energy and environmental protection, education and science and technology, medical treatment and health, culture and sports. Since its inception in 1991, the Award has been issued to 1,149 foreign experts from 60 countries.

Director of IOB, Dr. FANG Jingyun congratulated Dr. Raven (Picture/IOB)