CSSAR--The 37th COSPAR Scientific Assembly was held in Montreal, Canada on July 14th. The delegation of China Committee of Space Research, headed by the Deputy Director of CAS Jiang Mianheng attended the event. Mr. Jiang conferred Zhao Jiu-Zhang Award co-established by CAS and the Committee of Space Research (COSPAR) on the opening ceremony on behalf of CAS.

The COSPAR holds the Scientific Assembly every two years. Relevant organizations including CAS successfully held the 36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly in Beijing in 2006. The Assembly of this year in Montreal, Canada was also the 50th anniversary of founding of COSPAR. Therefore several special memorial presentations were delivered on the day of opening ceremony to review the development of space research in the past 50 years and its impact on social development.

The Zhao Jiu-Zhang Award was co-established by CAS and COSPAR in 2006 to encourage those scientists who make prominent and pioneering contribution to space research and detection. The award of 2008 was the first conferment of the award after its establishment. The winner was the Leading Scientist of The IMAGE Mission James Burch. The Deputy Director of CAS Jiang Mianheng announced the award on the opening ceremony and conferred to Dr. Burch the certificate co-signed by the Director of CAS Lu Yongxiang and the President of COSPAR.