Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS)

  Last updated on 27 May, 2003      

Introduction of Institute of Chemistry, 
the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Renquan Huang
Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Institute of Chemistry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences（ICCAS）was established in 1956. ICCAS is a multidisciplinary and comprehensive research institute promoting basic researches in a broad range of chemical sciences and high-tech innovation, application and industrialization to serve the national strategic needs. ICCAS has, since its birth, helped the establishment and development of a number of other chemical research institutes within the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

For example, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes (1958), Institute of Photographic Chemistry (1975) and Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (1975) were virtually established on the basis of relative research areas as well as staff members from ICCAS; over a dozen of scientists specialized in C1 chemistry moved to Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry when it was founded; the research group of organofluorine chemistry moved to the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry in 1963; the National Engineering Research Center of Engineering Plastics was split from ICCAS and joined the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry in 1999. In 1994, ICCAS became one of the earliest pilot-units in the reform of basic research which was supervised by the Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and its performance was assessed as excellent during the period review in 1998. In the same year, ICCAS became one of the earliest pilot-units in the Knowledge Innovation Program of the CAS. In March 1999, the Center for Molecular Science (CMS) was established at ICCAS under the guidance of the CAS. The missions of the CMS are to become a leading national base for basic research in chemical sciences and an internationally first-class research center for molecular science. ICCAS aims to become an internationally TOP research institute, i.e., to create internationally Top-ranking research accomplishments, to foster Omniscient talents and to carry out Progressive research management systems.

The major research areas at ICCAS include chemical reaction dynamics and structural chemistry, chemistry of molecular assemblies including molecular electronics, synthetic and preparation science and high-tech (advanced) materials. In addition are two new frontier research areas: nano-science and technology, and chemical biology.

At present ICCAS hosts four State Key Laboratories, which are State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics (co-host with Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics), State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species (co-host with College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Peking University), State Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics, and State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry (co-host with Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry). ICCAS also hosts three Key Laboratories of the CAS, which are Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Key Laboratory of Photochemistry and Key Laboratory of Molecular Nano-structure and Nano-technology. In 2001, another affiliated research center, Center for Nanoscience and Technology of the CAS was established at ICCAS.

By the end of 2001, ICCAS had a staff of 507 members, among whom 424 were researchers and technicians, including 9 Academicians of the CAS, 1 Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), 96 research professors, 88 associate research professors, 30 senior engineers, 140 technicians and research assistants, along with 37 postdoctoral research fellows, 248 registered Ph. D students and 178 M. Sc. students.

Founded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the CAS and the Ministry of Education, the Beijing Mass Spectra Center was set up, Now a number of modern analytical instruments are housed at the ICCAS Analytical Center, 24 of which worth over one million Chinese Yuan (RMB). The ICCAS library has a total collection of about 30,000 books in Chinese or foreign languages and over 600 academic journals (about 40,000 issues in total) mostly in Chinese, English and Japanese. 

ICCAS has, since its establishment, received six international awards, fifty two national awards, one hundred and fifty six ministerial level awards, including four Second Prize of National Natural Science Awards（NNSA）, nine National Science & Technology Progress Awards（NSTPA）, three Top-Grade Prize of NSTPA, one 1st Prize of NSTPA and one 2nd Prize of NSTPA. In particular, since the initiation of the Knowledge Innovation Program of the CAS, ICCAS has made a number of important achievements in some research areas. For example, in 1999, the “Basic physical problems in the condensed state of macromolecules” project was awarded a 2nd prize of NNSA and the “Basic chemical and physical problems in C60” project a 2nd Natural Science Prize of the CAS. In 2000, the “Polymer-Stabilized Nanoscopic Metal Clusters and Catalysis” project was awarded a 1st Natural Science Prize of the CAS, and the “Studies on the industrialization of spherical catalysts for olefin polymerization” project a 1st STPA of Liaoning Province (ICCAS was the second contributor). In 2001, “The study on design, evaluation, and properties of the organic nonlinear optical materials” was awarded a 2nd Natural Science Prize of the CAS, the “Fundamental investigation of vibrational spectroscopy and its interdisciplinary studies” project (in collaboration with Peking University) a 1st STPA of Beijing, and the “Theoretical Biological study on the Triplex DNA structural model and enegetics” (in collaboration with Kunming Institute of Zoology of the CAS) a 1st NSA of Yunnan Province. According to the statistics published by the Institute of Information of the MOST at the end of 2001, ICCAS ranked No.2, 4, and 5, respectively, with regard to the amount of published SCI papers, citations and the amount of the domestically published papers. A increasing number of high quality papers has been published in some of the top international academic journals, such as Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., and J. Am. Chem. Soc. In 2001, ICCAS had made 100 patents applications, of which 98 were inventive patents. 38 patents were licensed in the same year.

ICCAS has appointed fourteen honorable research professors, including three Nobel Prize Laureates. In 2001, the “Molecular Science Forum” was co-organized by the Institute of Chemistry and the Chinese Chemical Society.

Since its foundation, ICCAS has established extensive academic relations internationally; and so far ICCAS has set up scientific and technological collaboration and exchange programs with many scientific institutions and industrial enterprises in over thirty countries and regions. Since 2001, ICCAS has strengthened its collaboration with renowned academic institutions and universities domestically and abroad, having signed collaboration agreements with College of Chemistry & Molecule Engineering of Peking University, College of Chemistry & Molecular Science of Wuhan University, and Graduate School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

The Chinese Chemical Society is affiliated with and housed at ICCAS. Academic journals co-published by ICCAS and CCS include “Huaxue Tongbao (Chemistry Bulletins)”, “Acta Polymerica Sinica”, “Polymer Bulletin”, “Chinese Journal of Polymer Science” and “Chemistry Online” etc.

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