The kick-off and 2019 academic committee meeting of Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Stable Isotope Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Key Lab) was held at the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on July 13th, 2019. Almost 70 people attended the meeting, including members of the academic committee, researchers and graduate students of the Key Lab, officials from Liaoning Provincial Department of Science and Technology (ZHANG Gang, ZHANG Jinyu), officials from Shenyang Municipal Science and Technology (S&T) Bureau (WANG Yiqing, etc.), party secretary and vice president of CAS Shenyang Branch (JI Lanzhu). The meeting was hosted by JING Hongshuang, the head of the S&T division of IAE.

HAO Xin, deputy secretary-general of IAE, delivered a speech on behalf of IAE. She outlined the stable isotope technology of IAE, thanked Liaoning Provincial S&T Department and Shenyang Municipal S&T Bureau for their support during the preparations for setting up the Key Lab, and raised her expectations for the Key Lab’s future development. ZHANG Jinyu, deputy division chief from Liaoning Provincial S&T Department, delivered a speech on behalf of the S&T Department of Liaoning Province. He congratulated the establishment of the Key Lab, affirmed and praised the contribution of IAE to the S&T innovation of Liaoning Province. 

Subsequently, ZHANG Gang, chief of the Social Development Division of Liaoning S&T Department, WANG Yiqing, deputy director of Shenyang S&T Bureau, JI Lanzhu and FANG Yunting, deputy director of IAE, jointly unveiled the plaque of the Key Lab. HAO Xin and FANG Yunting issued letters of appointment to members of the academic committee. Professor LIN Guanghui of Tsinghua University is the director of the academic committee; Professor LIU Xueyan of Tianjin University and FANG Yunting are deputy directors. WU Zhijie of IAE, WANG Jingkuan of Shenyang Agricultural University, TIAN Lide of Yunnan University, LI Dejun of the CAS Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, ZHANG Jinbo of Nanjing Normal University, FENG Xiaojuan of the CAS Institute of Botany, ZHANG Yanlin from Nanjing University of Information Science and Engineering, and LI Bo, senior engineer from IAE, are members of the first academic committee. On behalf of the academic committee, LIN Guanghui expressed his congratulations on the establishment of the Key Lab and raised his expectations for the contributions of the Key Lab to northeast China.     

FANG Yunting reviewed the stable isotope technology at home and abroad, and presented the advantages of IAE in terms of the number of isotope instruments, the output of academic articles and its academic influence at home and abroad. He then set forth the development goals of the Key Lab in the next three years and introduced the application examples of stable isotope technology. Members of the academic committee then discussed and put forward guiding opinions and suggestions on the development of the Key Lab.

Finally, FANG Yunting made a concluding remark. He expressed his gratitude to the members of the academic committee, and said that he would organize members of the Key Lab to discuss the suggestions put forward by the experts of the academic committee, consolidate the development goals, and promote the future research and management of the Key Lab.

As the first provincial-level key laboratory for stable isotope technology in ecology, the establishment of this Key Lab will promote the application and development of stable isotope technology in ecology, agriculture, forestry and other fields, and will contribute to the S&T innovation of Liaoning Province.