New science association president aims to raise local residents' scientific literacy rate to 25%
Chen Saijuan, director of State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, was elected the president of the Shanghai Association of Science and Technology on September 25.
Chen is the third female president of the association in its history, following Xie Xide and Ye Shuhua.
According to Chen, works on the popularization of science is very important to the residents' scientific literacy. She said a recent survey shows that the scientific literacy rate of Shanghai residents reached nearly 22 percent. Although this rate is relatively high, she still thinks there is still room for improvement.
"Our goal is to raise local residents' scientific literacy rate to 25 percent by 2020, which requires us to take more efforts on science popularization and education," said Chen.
This year's scientific literacy rate of local residents is 21.88 percent, up 3 percent from 2015 and ranking the highest among all Chinese mainland cities.
Meanwhile, 10 local scientists have been honored the 15th Shanghai Scientific and Technological Elites award, with another 27 the 9th Shanghai Youth Scientific and Technological Talent award, according to the association.