PSA Association Affairs 73(4)

Prepared by Burke Burnett, PSA Executive Secretary 17 September 2019

I. PSA Announcements

A. The 24^th Pacific Science Congress

PSA is pleased to announce that the 24th Pacific Science Congress (PSC-24) will be held on 13–17 July 2020 at the campus of Shantou University in Shantou (Guangdong Province), China. The Congress will be held in partnership between the China Association of Science and Technology (CAST), Shantou University, and the Pacific Science Association.

The proposed theme of the Congress is “Articulating Visions of Sustainability in Asia and the Pacific.” The Local Organizing Committee and PSA International Program Committee are working together to formulate the Congress themes, agenda, and keynote speakers. PSA Executive Secretary Burke Burnett will meet with CAST and Shantou University officials to review important milestones.

The PSC-24 will mark the 100^th Anniversary of the Pacific Science Association, and will also be the occasion for the next meeting of the PSA Council and Executive Board.

As always, PSA is strongly committed to ensuring that the Congress will be focused on both core and emerging scientific topics, as well as being maximally inclusive both in terms of the participation of all nations in the Asia-Pacific region, and for the full national and generational range of participating scientists.

Planning for the PSC-24 has begun and is proceeding smoothly. The official Congress website will be developed in late Q3 of 2019, and sub-themes and critical dates will be announced as they are established, and posted both on the official Congress site as well as the PSA website (www.pacificscience.org).

About Shantou University and Chaoshan Metropolitan Area

Shantou University (STU) was founded in 1981 and is the only institution of higher learning in the Chaoshan metropolitan region (encompassing Shantou and its nearby neighbor cities of Jieyang and Chaozhou). STU was named a top 250 school in the most recent Times Higher Education Young University rankings, and receives support from the Ministry of Education, the Guangdong Provincial Government, and the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Currently, STU has a staff of 1,533 and over 10,000 students, and consists of 10 colleges and schools that offer a number of Masters, Doctoral, and Postdoctoral Programs. The University also has both National Key Laboratory and Provincial Key Laboratories, and National Pilot Sites for Innovative Talents Training. STU has also partnered with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology to establish Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT), an institution of higher learning in Shantou. More information on Shantou University is available on their official website: http://english.stu.edu.cn.

Shantou is a coastal city of about 5.5 million people in Guangdong Province (southeast China), located about 400 km due east of Guangzhou. Chaoshan Metropolitan Area has a combined population of over 14 million people. Shantou has an international airport with connections to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore (as well as nonstop connections to major Chinese cities). Chaoshan is also known as the ancestral homeland of many Thais, Cambodians, Singaporeans, Malaysians, and Indonesians of Chinese descent.