On August 30, 2018, the 7th Young Scholars Salon, co-sponsored by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, the Regional Low-Carbon Development Research Group, the Personnel Division and the Science and Technology Division of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was held in the Academic Reporting Hall of IAE. Dr. MI Lei, professor of Xi'an Institute of Optics and Mechanics, CAS, founder and co-CEO of ZhongkeChuangxing Co. Ltd. and co-founder of Xike Angel Fund, gave an academic talk to the researchers and graduate students of IAE. His talk was entitled ‘Hard Science & Technology Changes the World’. Dr. XI Fengming, researcher of IAE, presided over the academic talk. Nearly 30 people from IAE, the Institute of Metal Research and the Institute of Automation of CAS attended the talk.

As the first person to advocate and practice the concept of China's Hard Science & Technology, Dr. MI devotes to inspire a new wave of high-tech innovation in China. He advocated and jointly founded the first angel fund in the northwest China. He established China's first Strat up Funding Platform which has successfully incubated more than 150 high-tech enterprises. During his talk, Dr. MI explained the concept of Hard Science & Technology. He put forward that Hard Science & Technology is the cornerstone of innovation-driven strategy which can boost China’s development and make the country stand at the top of the world again. He emphasized the power of Hard Science & Technology by narrating and interpreting some cases of Science & Technology History. He also shared his experience in successful transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Finally, he explained the whole process of building a Hard Science & Technology Ecological Network System based on scientific research institutions + incubators + angel funds + entrepreneurship training.

Dr. Mi’s wonderful talk aroused the interest of the entire audience. Researchers and graduate students of IAE had an in-depth exchange and discussion with Dr. Mi. After the talk, Dr. XI expressed his gratitude to Dr. Mi for his excellent talk. He hoped that young scholars would address the major battlefield of the national economy, learn from Dr. Mi’s successful experience in transformation of S& T achievements, and achieve more scientific and technological innovations for our motherland.