Editor's Note: On Jan 9, the central government presented the State scientific and technological awards. Seven foreign scientists and one overseas organization won the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. China Daily interviewed some of award winners.

Niek Rengers, an engineering geologist from the Netherlands, has collaborated with Chinese geologists for the past decade, developing a prevention and control system to evaluate geological hazards in China.

Rengers won an International Science and Technology Cooperation Award on Jan 9, given by the Chinese government to honor his contribution to China's geological hazard prevention and youth training.

The award is the highest the Chinese government gives to foreign scientists and organizations for contributions to the country's science and technology development.

Rengers, 75, is the former president of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment and now works as a visiting professor for Chengdu University of Technology in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Sichuan is a major earthquake zone, and the county of Wenchuan was hit by an magnitude-8.0 quake on May 12, 2008, leaving almost 70,000 people dead. A magnitude-7.0 quake hit Lushan, also in the province, on April 20, 2013, killing at least 196 people.

Rengers works closely with the university in the quake zone to look at geological hazards, estimate potential damage and try to minimize it.

Besides establishing a prevention and control system, Rengers also nurtures talented Chinese, training more than 10 faculty members and 20 graduate students.

He has witnessed China's scientific progress in recent years and believes that international joint research will encourage further innovation.

"What I see in my field of expertise is that Chinese scientists are more actively participating over the last few years in international working groups, commission meetings, symposia, conferences, etc," he wrote in an e-mail interview.

"To encourage innovation I recommend to stimulate international research cooperation at the postdoc level. By sending young Chinese postdocs to universities and research institutions abroad as well as by inviting postdocs from abroad to work for longer periods in China. These young scientists must bring innovation by widening their view in research cooperation over country borders," he wrote.

Rengers plans to continue work with the State Key Laboratory for Geo-Hazard Prevention at Chengdu University of Technology.

"I am planning to focus on training staff and students in acquiring publication skills for international refereed journals. ... I am also planning to propose an MSc/PhD level research project in which Chinese geotechnical testing techniques, classification methods and design standards are compared with internationally accepted methods and standards, in order to facilitate a better international transfer of research results," he wrote.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 01/20/2015 page5)