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“The Friendship Award” is the People's Republic of China's highest award for

foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the country's

economic and social progress. Every year, 50 foreign experts are selected for

the award, while 100 can qualify at certain anniversary celebrations. A total of

1,249 foreign experts, from 67 countries and regions have received the

Chinese government’s Friendship Award, since 1991.

Up till now, altogether 11 foreign geoscientists recommended by the Chinese

Academy of Geological Sciences were conferred on “the Friendship Award”

due to their significant contributions to the development of geosciences in

China,

Prof. Burrell Clark Burchfiel

Prof. Burrell Clark Burchfiel is an American structural geologist. Born

in Stockton, California, he earned his Ph.D. in 1961 at Yale University. His first

academic appointment was to the Geology Department at Rice University. He

is the Schlumberger Professor of Geology at Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT). His research interests include origin, development, and

structural evolution of the continental crust. His current work involves study of

the geological history and evolution of the Tibetan plateau. Prof. Burrell Clark

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Burchfiel was conferred on “the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award”

in 2001.

Prof. Paul Robinson

Prof. Paul Robinson from the Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie

University, Canada has long been engaged in the research in ophiolites and

oceanic lithosphere. He has worked on ophiolites in Oman, Cyprus, Canada,

USA and China, including the diamond-bearing peridotites of Tibet and their

podiformchromitites. He has accumulated rich experience through participation

in a number of deep sea and ocean drilling programs. Prof. Robinson has

carried out long-term cooperation with the researchers from the Institute of

Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences on mantle minerals in

Tibet. Being a member of the China Continental Scientific Drilling Program, he

has offered constructive suggestions for the successful operation of the

program and given a lot of help in sample collection and analyses. His

long-term cooperation with Chinese geologists has also produced a number of

jointly published papers. Prof. Paul Robinson was conferred on “the People’s

Republic of China Friendship Award” in 1999.

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Prof. Paul Tapponnier

Professor Paul Tapponnier from the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris is

widely recognized as one of the foremost scientists of his generation in

neotectonics. In 1998, Prof. Tapponnier worked with the Chinese research

team led by Academician Xu Zhiqin from the Institute of Geology, Chinese

Academy of Geological Sciences in conducting research on structural

evolution in the middle Altyn Tagh Fault and eastern Kunlun Fault Zone in the

northern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. After long-term collaborative research, they

have developed a deeper understanding of the formation, evolution and

extension mode of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and obtained great achievements

in the fields of the slip rate, earthquake reoccurrence interval, deformation

characteristics and tectonic evolution of large-sized strike slip faults since the

Holocene in the northern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Since 1998, over 20 papers

have been jointly published by Prof. Tapponnier and the Chinese geologists,

and 2 of the papers were published in Science. His efforts have not only

pushed forward the study in the formation, evolution and uplifting of the

plateau and the process of environmental change, but also helped enlarge the

influence of Chinese geologists in the international geoscience community.

Meanwhile, the collaborative research has significantly facilitated the capacity

building for participating young Chinese geologists. Prof. Paul Tapponnier was

conferred on “the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award” in 1998.

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Dr. Sergey I. Andreev

Dr. Sergey I. Andreev currently serves as the Head of the Department for

Geology and Mineral Resources of All-Russian Research Institute for Geology

and Mineral Resources of the World Ocean (VNIIOkeangeologia) and a

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Andreev has

long been devoted to the research in ocean polymetallic nodule and

cobalt-rich manganese crusts. He has accumulated rich experience through

participation in a number of ocean expeditions and carried out in-depth

research in oceanic mineral resources. Since 1992, Dr. Andreev has been

active in promoting academic exchanges between the Institute of Mineral

Resources, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and VNIIOkeangeologia.

His efforts have greatly improved Chinese geologists’ knowledge of the

up-to-date research developments in seabed metals, energy, seabed tectonics,

deposits, geophysics, cobalt crusts samples and etc in the Russian and

international geoscience communities. Due to his important contributions to

the investigation and study of oceanic mineral resources in China, Dr. Sergey I.

Andreev was conferred on “the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award”

in 2001.

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Prof. Larry Brown conferred on “the Friendship Award” in 2001

Professor Larry Brown from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric

Sciences, Cornell University is a prestigious geophysicist long been engaged

in deep seismic investigations. After earning Ph.D. in geological sciences in

Cornell in 1977, he has been participating in Consortium for Continental

Reflection Profiling (COCORP) programme in Cornell and many major

international projects in deep seismic investigations. Prof. Brown is a Fellow of

the Geological Society of America and a Member of the American Geophysical

Union, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, and the European

Geosciences Union. He once served as the Vice-President of the International

Lithosphere Program (ILP) and editor of Acta Geoscientica Sinica. Prof. Brown

has contributed significantly to promoting substantial exchanges and

comprehensive cooperation between Chinese and American geoscience

communities in deep seismic investigations of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He has

been one of the leading American scientists in collaborating with Academician

Zhao Wenjin from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences to have

successfully carried out “the International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the

Himalayas (INDEPTH) Programme” and played a key role in the operation of

the project. The project has obtained a series of new findings and important

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achievements, and greatly promoted multilateral scientific and technological

exchanges and cooperation among the geologists and geophysicists from

China, America, Germany and Canada participating in the project. Prof. Larry

Brown was conferred on “the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award” in

2001.

Prof. Meng Xianlai, President of Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences

(CAGS), confers on Dr. Wolfgang Eder the title of the CAGS Honorary

Research Fellow in 2005

Dr. Wolfgang Eder is a senior advisor to the Global Geopark Network. He

served as the Director of UNESCO’s Division of Earth Sciences and Secretary

of the International Geoscience Program (IGCP) from April 1992 to December

2004. During his term as the Director of UNESCO’s Division of Earth Sciences

and IGCP Secretary, Chinese researchers altogether participated in 43 IGCP

projects, accounting for 41.7% of the total on-going IGCP projects during that

period of time, and the number of IGCP projects with Chinese geologists as

Leaders or Co-leaders increased by a large margin to 20 (9 as Leaders and 11

as Co-leaders). In February 2004, Dr. Eder presided over the 32nd Session of

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IGCP Scientific Board, at which a decision was made to give unanimous

support for the establishment of the International Research Center on Karst in

Guilin, China. Meanwhile, Dr. Eder helped introduce the concept of geoparks

to China in the 1990s and rendered great support for the construction and

development of Geoparks in China. He carried out a number of on-site

investigations to aspiring Chinese geoparks and put forward valuable

suggestions on the planning and sustainable development of geoparks from

the geoscientfic perspective. Dr. Wolfgang Eder was conferred on “the

People’s Republic of China Friendship Award” in 2005.

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu confers on Prof. William Compston “the

Friendship Award” in 2006

Professor William Compston from the Australian National University is a

world-renowned isotope geologist. Being a pioneer in the research on isotopic

geochronology, the techniques of isotopic geology and the development of

mass spectrometer, he designed Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe

(SHRIMP) and developed the new technique for SHRIMP U-Th-Pb zircon

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dating. He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences in

1971 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1987. Prof. Compston

has been very friendly and paid many visits to China in the past nearly three

decades. He offered great help to Chinese geologists to carry out the research

on isotopic geochronology and the techniques of isotopic geology, and

sponsored a number of study tours for young geologists from Chinese

Academy of Geological Sciences and other Chinese institutions to Australia. In

particular, he introduced the SHRIMP dating technique to China and provided

valuable guidance and suggestions for Chinese geologists in the

establishment of the Beijing SHRIMP Center, which has now developed into a

world-famous geochronology laboratory and a top isotope dating platform. The

efficient operation of the Beijing SHRIMP Center has helped accelerate the

development of geosciences in China. Prof. William Compston was conferred

on “the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award” in 2006.

Chinese State Councilor Hua Jianmin Confers on Dr. Oleg Petrov “the

Friendship Award” in 2007

Dr. Oleg Petrov is the Director General of A.P. Karpinsky Russian

Geological Research Institute (VSEGEI), and serves as the Vice-President of

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the Subcommission for Northern Eurasia, Commission for the Geological Map

of the World and Chairman of the Chief Editorial Board of the Ministry of

Natural Recourses of the Russian Federation. Owing to his outstanding

academic achievements, he won the title of Honoured Geologist of the

Russian Federation. Since he assumed the post of the Director General of

VSEGEI in 1998, he has endeavored to advance cooperation between

Chinese and Russian geoscientific communities. He actively promoted the

rotating organization of “Seminars on Geology and Mineral Resources” during

“the Year of Russia in China” in 2006 and “the Year of China in Russia” in 2007.

He has been a key player and contributed a great deal to the initiation and

implementation of “The Atlas of Geological Maps of the Central Asia and

Adjacent Areas at 1: 2.5 M” (2003-2007) and “3D Geological Structures and

Metallogeny of the Northern-Central-Eastern Asia” (2008-2013), joint

international cooperation projects carried out by China, Russia, Mongolia,

Kazakhstan, and South Korea. He facilitated the successful organization of the

joint field excursion to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Norilsk and Irkutsk, Russia

in 2010. Currently, CAGS and VSEGEI are implementing three Sino-Russian

cooperation projects with frequent academic exchanges and rotating

organization of joint field excursions. Dr. Petrov was conferred on “the People’s

Republic of China Friendship Award” in 2007.

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Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang Confers on Prof. Robert Missotten

“the Friendship Award” in 2009

Professor Robert Missotten once served as Chief of Global Earth Observation

Section and Secretary of the International Geoscience Program at UNESCO.

He has been devoted to helping developing countries, especially those in

Africa and Asia with the application of remote sensing geology, construction of

Geological Information System, geological electronic data processing and

network management, evaluation of mineral resources and other relevant

fields. During his term of office as Chief of Global Earth Observation Section

and IGCP Secretary at UNESCO, Prof. Missotten greatly supported China’s

IGCP scientific activities, the approval and construction of the International

Research Center on Karst (IRCK) under the auspices of UNESCO in Guilin,

China, and the development of global geoparks in China. With his support, the

number of Chinese geoscientists serving as the IGCP Scientific Board

Members at the same time reached as many as 3, unprecedented in the IGCP

history. He played a major role in and offered a considerable number of

constructive suggestions for China’s successful application for the

establishment of IRCK, the first UNESCO Category II Center in geosciences,

and its smooth inauguration and operation afterwards. In addition, he actively

supported the sustainable development of geoparks in China. Professor

Robert Missotten was conferred on the “the People’s Republic of China

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Friendship Award” in 2009.

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang Confers on Prof. Alfred Kröner

“the Friendship Award” in 2010

Professor Alfred Kröner from Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz,

Germany is an internationally outstanding geologist specializing in the

research of Precambrian and early Palaeozoic crustal evolution. He has

carried out long-term and friendly cooperation with the Chinese geologists

since the 1980s and greatly helped advance Chinese geologists’ research

level in Precambrian geology by introducing updated research methods which

closely combined petrology, metamorphic petrology, isotopic geochronology,

and isotopic geochemistry. Professor Kröner has been keen to introduce

Chinese geologists and research institutions to the international geoscience

community. As the Honorary Professor of the Beijing SHRIMP Center, Prof.

Kröner has actively put forward suggestions to promote the development of the

Center and helped shape and build “China International Precambrian

Research Center (CIPRC)” affiliated to the Institute of Geology, CAGS.

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Professor Alfred Kröner was conferred on “the People’s Republic of China

Friendship Award” in 2010.

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang Confers on Prof. Werner E. G.

Müller “the Friendship Award” in 2011

Prof. Werner E. G. Müller from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is a

world-renowned biologist and paleontologist. He has gained outstanding

achievements in cytobiology, molecular biology and molecular bionics and

made significant contributions to China’s research on sponge evolution,

mineralization of siliceous sponge spicule and of the resulting bionic

applications. In recent years, Prof. Müller has conducted cooperative projects

together with the researchers from the National Research Center of

Geoanalysis, CAGS on mineralization mechanism of siliceous sponge spicules

and their bionic applications. Among the jointly published papers, more than 30

are SCI research papers. Based on the successful bilateral collaboration, the

German-Chinese Joint Lab of Bio-Nano-Composites, funded by the Federal

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Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, was established during the

German-Chinese Year of Science and Education (2009/2010). Prof. Werner E.

G. Müller was conferred on “the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award”

in 2011.