Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, formerly the Institute of Environmental Chemistry of Chinese Academy of Sciences founded in 1975, is the first comprehensive research institution engaged in research on eco-environmental science and technology in China. In 1986, authorized by State Science and Technology Commission and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), it was amalgamated with Research Center of Ecology of CAS and was reorganized into Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter abbreviated to RCEES). In June 1999, it became a part of the Pilot Project of Knowledge Innovation Program of CAS.
Currently there are 473 staff in RCEES, including 5 academicians, 105 research professors, 106 associate professors, 179 assistant professors and 28 junior researchers or administrators working in various areas. There are 11 research departments or laboratories including three state key laboratories (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, State Key Laboratory of Aquatic Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology), 8 departments for administration or management and other sections.
Being one of the key educational base for graduate students in CAS, RCEES offers M.Sc program in environmental sciences, ecology, environmental engineering, environmental economics and environmental management, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and population, resource & environmental economics; Ph.D program in environmental sciences, environmental engineering, ecology, and environmental economics and environmental management; and provides postdoctoral program in environmental sciences and technology and biology.
RCEES has successively carried out the frontier researches on environmental chemistry, environmental science, and systems ecology since 1975, and has done some pioneer, foundation-laid and creative work on the environmental background survey, acid rain investigation, environment safety assessment, water pollution control, environmental behavior and ecotoxicological effects of persistent organic pollutants, theory of complex ecosystems, national nature reserve construction and many other environmental issues in China. It made historical contribution to the development in the eco-environmental sciences and technology in China. After being a part of the Pilot Project of Knowledge Innovation Program of CAS, oriented to the demand of the nation for eco-environmental protection and construction and international frontiers, RCEES has further made discipline rearrangement, optimized the construction of innovation teams, strengthened innovation capacities, and enhanced the international cooperation scale, and gained an unprecedented rapid and healthy development. There is a great increase on the quantity and quality of research publications and invention patent applications. It conducts larger research projects. The national and international cooperation becomes much wider and more active. The education capacity for graduate students is also developed, and the competitive capacity is enhanced significantly.
The main purposes of RCEES are to carry out some national and international research projects in environmental sciences, environmental engineering, systems ecology and environmental biotechnology, to advance the science and technology nationally and world widely, to provide fundamental data in ecological and environmental sciences for governments and to offer some applied high technology to enterprises. RCEES has set up a number of academic relationships and links with some well known institutes or academies in many countries. Several important international conferences or symposia on eco-environmental sciences have been held here and many visiting scientists, scholars or students are bilaterally exchanged every year.
