On February 24, 2025, Xi Beidou, President of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), met with Professor John Cherry, Chair of the International Scientific Advisory Committee (CRAES-ISAC), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a world-renowned groundwater scientist. During the meeting, Xi Beidou presented Professor Cherry with a letter of appointment as a Member of Phase Ⅱ of CRAES-ISAC.

President Xi extended a warmest welcome to Prof. Cherry and expressed gratitude for his long-standing support as the international Chair of CRAES-ISAC. He hoped that the reconstituted ISAC, under Prof. Cherry’s leadership, would provide more targeted advice and resources to advance CRAES’s international collaborations and its global development.

Prof. Cherry thanked the CRAES President and appreciated China’s remarkable progress in ecological and environmental protection in recent years. He highlighted that environmental protection remains one of the key areas in global governance and made his commitment to further promoting CRAES’s international cooperation and global engagement through the platform of CRAES-ISAC.

Both sides also had in-depth discussions on issues including leveraging the role of ISAC members, facilitating development in CRAES’s groundwater research, and strengthening support for the priorities of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China. Representatives from CRAES’s International Cooperation Center and Institute of Soil and Groundwater Environment also attended the meeting.