Palynology actually began with the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The earliest palynology laboratory was established at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1953. Two others were set up at the (Beijing) Institute of Geology, Ministry of Geology, China, and the Beijing Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1954 and 1959 respectively. Subsequently, a large number of palynologists were trained, and a large number of palynology laboratories were begun throughout the country to meet the urgent need for extensive geological surveys and energy resource exploration. With a marked progress of more than 20 years, it became evident that palynologists should be united into a single federation, aiming to promote friendship among colleagues, to exchange information, to share recent advances both at home and abroad, and to generally raise the research level.
The Palynological Society of China was established in 1979 at the first Palynological Symposium held in Tianjing, near Beijing. Prof. Hsu Jen, the founder of palynology in China, was elected as the first President, and some 300 palynologists enrolled as founding members. In 1988, PSC got a maximum number over 510. Today there are still over 250 active numbers in PSC, and 150 numbers are in the list of International Federation of Palynological Societies (IFPS). In 2000, PSC successfully organized the 10th International Palynological Congress held in Nanjing with about 300 delegates participated. More and more publications have appeared in western journals since the beginning of new, more open, policies in 1978. Now PSC has more and more young palynologists who are active in world.
PSC edits Newsletter semiyearly which is downloadable from the Chinese website (http://www.nigpas.ac.cn/new/xuehui/02.htm). PSC organizes the national congress every two years, and other related symposiums from time to time. |
