A Nanjing University honorary professor was one of the 50 international specialists, from 21 different countries, who were granted the 2018 Chinese government Friendship Award at a ceremony held on September 29 in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The award is the highest honor granted to international specialists who have made great contributions to China's modernization.
Professor Markku Tapio Kulmala, the award winner from Nanjing University, is a worldly outstanding scholar in the field of atmospheric and earth systems science and also the founder of aerosol nucleation theory.
He is currently dean of the Institute of Atmospheric and Earth System Science at the University of Helsinki, an honorary professor of Nanjing University, a fellow of the Academy of Sciences of Finland, an academician of the European Academy of Sciences, an academician of the Eurasian Academy of Sciences, an academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences, and a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Professor Kulmala also won the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the Jiangsu Provincial Government in 2016.
Kulmala has not only made great contributions to the discipline construction and talent cultivation of Nanjing University, but also has always been committed to promoting scientific and technological progress in the fields of atmospheric environment and climate change in developing countries.
In 2008, he introduced the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing University to participate in the EU Seventh Framework Project “China's Geo-gas Interaction.”
Since 2009, he has been serving as a member of Nanjing University’s International Advisory and Evaluation Committee of the Institute of Climatic and Global Changes.
He has helped the university’s School of Atmospheric Sciences with the planning of a design and test base, donated advanced experimental facilities, trained technicians and graduate students, and actively promoted the joint construction of a laboratory by Nanjing University and the University of Helsinki, a laboratory that was also awarded the title International Joint Laboratory by the State Ministry of Education.
As an academic master of the university’s 111-base, Professor Kulmala comes to the university many times a year for lectures, research, and talent training.
Besides, he actively encourages Chinese scientists to participate in large-scale international scientific programs and enhances China's voice in the field of environmental and climatic changes.
He also helps China deal with air pollution problems and accompanies the Finnish Minister of Environmental Protection and Education in his visits to China and promotes bilateral cooperation at the national and city levels.
At the same time, Professor Kulmala vigorously seeks funding and technology from Finland and the rest of Europe to help cities such as Beijing and Nanjing to solve current pollution problems.
Many advanced instruments he has promoted are being more and more extensively put to use in China.
