Science deal signed with Beijing

Chinese and Israeli Science and Technology ministers meet.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Prof. Danny Hershkovitz 248 88 aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Prof. Danny Hershkovitz 248 88 aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Chinese Science and Technology Minister Prof. Wan Gang was due late on Thursday night to sign an agreement on scientific cooperation with his Israeli counterpart, Prof. Daniel Herschkowitz.
Some $2.5 million have been invested by each side in eight cooperative research projects in the fields of renewable energy and water technologies. The money funds the projects for two years.
Herschkowitz said before his meeting with the Chinese official that China is very interested in advancing scientific connections with Israel. “It regards Israeli scientists as a model of innovation and creativity, thus both sides are interested in taking advantage of cooperation in these fields,” he said.
The two men are due to talk about a conference of Israeli and Jewish Nobel Prize winners, which will be held in China in November. The Chinese dignitary will during his current visit meet President Shimon Peres and Industry, Trade and Employment Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and tour the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
Wan, who has a doctorate in engineering, is vice chairman of the 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, chairman of China’s Zhi Gong party and minister of science and technology. His was the first non-Communist Party ministerial appointment in China since the 1950s.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1978 from Northeast Forestry University before joining the faculty of that university. From 1979 to 1981, he was a postgraduate researcher in experimental mechanics at the structural theories research institute of Tongji University, where he got his master’s degree in 1981 and was a faculty member from 1981 to 1985. Then he earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering in a German university and worked as an engineer in the R&D Department and later as technical manager at the Audi Corporation in Germany.
Wan returned to China to be dean of he new energy automobile engineering center at Tongji University in 2001, and he was appointed minister in 2007.