The 2025 International Congress of Basic Science(ICBS) opened on Sunday at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, with six preeminent scientists honored with the Basic Science Lifetime Award – the highest distinction in fundamental research.
Honorees include Samuel Chao Chung Ting, Steven Chu, David Gross, Robert Tarjan, Shigefumi Mori, and George Lusztig, in recognition of their enduring contributions to Mathematics, Physics, and Information Science and Engineering.
Four Fields Medalists, three Nobel Laureates, and two Turing Award winners, including Shing-Tung Yau and Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, also attended the congress.
Addressing the opening ceremony, ICBS President and Fields Medalist Shing-Tung Yau highlighted recent breakthroughs in mathematics, physics, and information science. He expressed the belief that a new era driven by theoretical breakthroughs and technological innovations may be dawning.
Nearly 1,000 experts, scholars, and students convened at the China National Convention Center. They will engage in deep discussions over the coming two weeks on cutting-edge progress in mathematics, physics, and information science and engineering.
Initiated by Shing-Tung Yau in 2023, ICBS is held annually with the theme "Advancing Science for Humanity".
Six scientists receive lifetime award at int'l science congress
Six scientists receive lifetime award at int'l science congress
Axis powers during World War II should offer sincere reflection and apology, a Greek mayor said after Greece successfully repatriated a rare collection of 262 World War II-era photographs.
Greek officials traveled to Belgium to negotiate with the seller and brought the photographs back to Greece, after they were put up for sale online by a Belgian collector, said the Greek Culture Ministry.
The images were taken by Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who served in Greece from 1943 to 1944, during World War II, and part of the collection documents the mass execution of Greek communists by Nazi troops in Kaisariani, east of Athens.
During World War II, German occupation in Greece met with fierce resistance. On May 1, 1944, German forces executed 200 Greeks at the Kaisariani firing range in retaliation for the killing of a German general by resistance fighters.
A memorial and a museum were set up after the war in Kaisariani to commemorate those who died in the mass execution.
"The photos really shocked us all because they were real documents from the day of the execution. We are shocked for many reasons. An important reason is that the 200 communists were singing with their heads held high before the execution in the photos, and they were not mourning because they were fighters," said Ilias Stamelos, mayor of Kaisariani.
The newly recovered photographs have drawn renewed attention to the historical trauma still felt in the community, as the images provide a direct visual record of the final moments of those executed.
In 1987, then German President Richard von Weizsaecker visited Greece and made a special stop in Kaisariani, reflecting on the profound suffering inflicted on the Greek people by Germany during World War II.
Ilias said that, like Germany, Japan, another Axis power during the war, should also be held accountable for the massive harm it caused to multiple countries and should offer sincere reflection and apology for its wartime aggression.
"And I think it's a common demand, because those responsible for the deaths in the World War II need to pay for what happened. It's known to all that back then it was Germany, Japan and Italy, the allies in this war, that each played different roles in the war, yet they do have common responsibilities," said the mayor.
Historic photos of Nazi mass execution of Greeks returned to Greece, mayor calls for historical accountability
