This year, the ION annual retreat was very special. It was the first joint retreat with faculty and students from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Furthermore, in celebration of Prof. HT Chang’s 100^th birthday, the ION symposium on Frontiers in Life Science was held in conjunction with the annual retreat, with eminent speakers from various fields of life science in China.

The 2006 Joint Retreat between ION and HKUST was held at the SIBS lecture hall on November 25th and 26th. Following the traditional Director’s Report from Prof. Mu-Ming Poo, in which he discussed the importance of creativity in scientific research, all ION PIs and ten faculty members from the Departments of Biochemistry and Biology at HKUST presented their recent work. Faculty, staff and students exchanged ideas and talked about potential future collaborations during the poster session.

On November 27th, the Symposium on Frontiers in Life Science in celebration for Prof. HT Chang’s 100^th Birthday. Professors Zuo-Yan Zhu (Institute of Hydrobiology, CAS), Jia-Yang Li (Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS), Yi-Xin Zeng (Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University), An-Ming Meng (Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University), Ming-Jie Zhang (Department of Biochemistry, HKUST), Xu Zhang (Institute of Neuroscience, CAS) and Shu-Min Duan (Institute of Neuroscience, CAS) presented talks on exciting recent advances in their respective research programs .

The lunch in celebration of Prof. Chang’s birthday was also held on November 27th,with over 120 guests, including Professors Jia-Yang Li (Deputy President of Chinese Academy of Sciences), Zuo-Yan Zhu (Deputy President of National Natural Science Foundation of China), and many friends and colleagues. Prof. Chien-Ping Wu, a former student of Prof. Chang and himself a prominent Chinese neuroscientist, reviewed Prof. Chang’s major contributions to the field of neuroscience. Prof. Mu-Ming Poo, as the director of ION, belauded Prof. Chang’s spirit of devotion to scientific research and to Chinese neuroscience.

Professors Yong-Xiang Lu (President of Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Zhu Chen (Deputy President of Chinese Academy of Sciences) sent congratulatory letters to Prof. Chang. Professors Mian-Heng Jiang (Deputy President of Chinese Academy of Sciences), Ren-Chang Hua (Deputy President of Shanghai Branch, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Gang Pei (President of Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS), Ai-Ke Guo (Deputy Director of ION) and Jia-Rui Wu (Vice President of Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS) visited Prof. Chang at his home in person to congratulate him on November 24, 2006. Many organizations and institutes also sent letters, cards and flowers.