China’s big task for a scientist of ‘small things’
- Hou Jianguo has been named the Communist Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- As its chief, Hou will face a range of complex international and domestic challenges
When Hou Jianguo takes on his next job, he will be assuming one of the world’s biggest roles in science.
The chemist will oversee nearly 70,000 researchers. He will also have to take calls around the clock from the most powerful people in the country, and he will have to promote international cooperation amid boycotts, sanctions and suspicions.
Hou will have to manage an organisation with an annual budget of nearly 100 billion yuan (US$15.2 billion), as well as research that runs the gamut from obscure flowering species in Africa to quantum computers and laser technology.
It is a big job that has been entrusted to a scientist who spent most of his life dealing with “small things”.
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Born in 1959 in the small fishing town of Pingtan, in the southeastern province of Fujian, Hou began his working life as a fitter at a small factory fixing small machines.