On June 2^nd, the closing session of the 9^th National Congress of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) was held at Great Hall of the People in Beijing. HUST alumnus Prof. Fang Zhong, the deputy director of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was awarded as ‘China Outstanding Science and Technology Expert(COSTE)’. Chairman of HUST University Board Dr. Lu Gang and President Ding Lieyun expressed their congratulations.

COSTE, former as “China Excellent Scientific and Technological Workers”， was newly established in 2015，focusing on encouraging high-level scientific and technological talents to achieve groundbreaking innovations in cutting-edge technologies. Ten were selected for this year’s COSTE with fields covering physics, chemistry, life science, agriculture, medicine, geography, IT, material science and engineering etc.

Fang Zhong, researcher, doctoral supervisor and deputy director of Institute of Physics, CAS, graduated from the Physics Department of Huazhong Institute of Technology (the predecessor of HUST) in 1991 and obtained his Ph. D in 1996. He has been long devoted to the research of condensed matter theory and materials computation. He was awarded the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2004 and selected as one of state-level candidates of the Million Talents Program (a program initiated by seven ministries of China for reinforcing the team building of high-level experts and rearing new generation of scientific and technological leaders) in 2005. In 2008, Fang was awarded Mao Yisheng Beijing Youth Science and Technology Prize and ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics) Prize; in 2010, he won the prize of C.N. Yang from AAPPS (Association of Asia-Pacific Physical Societies) and special government allowance of the State Council with his achievement being selected into Ten Scientific and Technological Advances of China. In 2011, he was awarded Qiu Shi Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Collective Prize, Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yang Zhenning Prize while being selected as an APS (American Physics Society) fellow. In 2012, Fang received Contribution Award for Returned Overseas Chinese and OCPA AAA (the Achievement in Asia Award or Robert T. Poe Prize of the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers).