Xu Zhihong, a 57-year-old plant biologist, has been named president of Beijing University. In an unusual move, Xu will also retain his position as a vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in a bid to cement links between the government and university research sectors. He succeeds physicist Chen Jai'er, who will become chair of China's funding agency for basic research, the National Natural Science Foundation.
Xu, who has spent most of his career at CAS's Shanghai Institute of Botanical Physiology, says his goals are to improve the quality of university teaching and encourage cross-disciplinary research. Researchers applaud Xu's appointment and see his dual role as a way to strengthen the sometimes tenuous relationship between CAS and universities. "Unfortunately, the two systems do not cooperate enough," says Zou Chenglu, a biophysicist at CAS's Beijing Institute of Biophysics and a CAS member.
