BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Lu Yongxiang said here Wednesday that the academic research fulfilled by his fellow scientists had greatly advanced national strength.

    At an annual academy conference which started Wednesday morning,Lu, who is a physicist and CAS academician, listed the systematic integration of Shenzhou-5, China's first manned spaceship, as the top of the excellent jobs done in 2003.

    The other achievements include China's first low-altitude experimental communication satellite, the world's 14th most powerful superserver, liquefying coal to fuel, frozen roadbed research for the Qinghai-Tibet Railroad, and the most advanced synthetic aperture radar system.

    "All the scientific achievements benefit the country in economic, security and social area," Lu said.

    In basic scientific research, Lu said, CAS scientists successfully synthesized a new nano material, sketched the precise genome map for rice, produced sequencing of the silkworm genome and the evolutionary tree of early life on the earth.

    Lu also said that his academy was now more adept in commercializing high technology.

    Last fiscal year, CAS high-tech companies produced a total output of 53.37 billion yuan (6.43 billion US dollars), revenue of3.4 billion yuan.

    High-tech products licensed by the CAS to nationwide companies earned 31.243 billion yuan. Enditem