The 2007 Joint Retreat between ION and USTC (University of Science and Technology of China) was held at the SIBS lecture hall on December 29th and 31st. Following the traditional Directora€？s Report from Prof. Mu-Ming Poo, in which he overviewed ION progress over the past year and discussed the definitions and importance of ethical scientific conduct, faculty members, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students from 17 ION laboratories and 7 USTC laboratories presented their recent work. Faculty, staff and students exchanged ideas and talked about potential future collaborations during this retreat.