March 31 2009, CAAS President Huqu Zhai met with Professor John Beddington, Chief Scientific Adviser to UK Government and Head of the Government Office for Science and the British delegation of 21 members. 

Building on the consensus reached by the Head of Government of China and UK early this February, the two sides aimed at potentials for substantive cooperation in food safety, agro-biological environment and crop genomics this time.

After the meeting, Professor Beddington delivered a speech titled “Science, Engineering and the Global Challenge of Food, Energy and Water Security” to researchers and post graduate students at CAAS.

Professor John Beddington was appointed as Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) on 1 January 2008. He has acted as a senior adviser to several government and international bodies, including the Australian, New Zealand and US Governments, the European Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. In 2001 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 2004 he was awarded the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George by the Queen for services to fisheries science and management.