Brief Introduction

The International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences (ICCES) is one of excellent centers of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS). ICCES was established in 1991, in response to the urgent need for the study on the climate and environment problems. According to our basis and the request of COMSATS, ICCES mainly engages in the basic theory and application research of climate, disaster, and environmental science fields as well as the interdisciplinary study of different subjects.

As an excellent center of COMSATS, in addition to each prescribed obligation, ICCES also widely cooperates internationally with the U.S.A., Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Pakistan in the climate and environmental research fields. ICCES has retained Guonan Liao (UCLA), Xubin Zeng (University of Arizona), Samuel S. P. Shen (University of Alberta), Gongbing Peng and Yaping Shao (University of New South Wales ) as visiting professors of the center.

In the last few years, the international cooperative research that was mainly carried out in ICCES includes the following: developing the Chinese-EU cooperation called the Data Fusion for Flood Analysis and Decision Support (ANFAS), which has gained the approval of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology; attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Climate Network (APCN) collaboration called the Multi-Models Ensemble Forecasts System of Climate; carrying out a long-term international cooperation between China and Thailand on the monitoring and forecasting of the monsoon and rainfalls related to flooding; developing the research on disaster weather related to rainfall in the Asian-Australia monsoon zone, in cooperation with the New South Wales University of Australia; presiding over the cooperation between China and Korea on the study of rainfall and the Meiyu period; and hosting the international training class for short range forecasting of climate and its application in October 2003, and the international class entitled, “Climate Variability in Asian Monsoon Region: Past to Future” in Bangkok in December 2003.

For the benefit of national security, ICCES cooperates with the Philippines on the research of typhoons and storms, and with Vietnam on the research of rainfall, tropical lows, and monsoons. Since the foundation of ICCES in 2000, a great deal of effective and efficient work have been done under the leadership of Prof. Lu Yongxiang (chairman of CAS), Professor M.H.A. Hassan (executive director of TWAS), Professor Yaloo (secretary-general of WMO), and Zeng Qincun (academician of CAS). Two symposiums and a seminar have been successfully held. The third international symposium was held in October 2004 and more than 100 scholars from all over the world (including developed and developing countries) participated the symposium. The center’s contributions amplify the influence of China and connect China with foreign academic circles.

As a COMSTAS excellent center, ICCES accepts not only scientists of the third world (southern nations) to come to China to carry out short period work, but also recruits students from abroad to come to China to conduct Master’s or Ph.D. study. These have fostered science and technology personnel for the international community, especially for developing countries. Up to now, two foreign students belonging to ICCES (from Pakistan and Thailand, respectively), have gained scholarships for foreign students from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003 because of their excellent performance. In addition, ICCES accepts visiting scholars funded by the TWAS Associate Fellowship Program and CAS to come to the center to carry on cooperative research.

Main Research Areas

• Studies on the climate dynamics and monsoon system;
  
• Development of climate system models and the associated climate simulation;
  
• Short-term climate prediction;
  
• Disastrous weather dynamics and prediction;
  
• Ecosystem and Environmental dynamics and Natural Cybernetics;
  
• Atmospheric informatics and Data Assimilation.

The East Asian climate system was put forward and the research revealed its significant influence on the major climate disaster in China.

Based on the climate system models developed in ICCES, the IAP dynamical Climate Prediction System has been established, and has been applied to the real-time prediction of summer rainfall anomalies.

Director: Prof. Zeng Qingcun
Junction Director: Dr.Lin Zhaohui
Executive Director: Prof. Zhao Sixiong
Deputy Director: Prof. Xue Feng
Tel: +86-10-82995308