On September 29, 2018 when all people are celebrating the 69th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, IWHR distinguished foreign employee Christopher George, executive director of International Association of Hydro-environment Research and Engineering (IAHR), whose world secretariat is hosted at IWHR, was granted the Chinese Government Friendship Award.

The ceremony was attended by Vice Premier Liu He and Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang.

Dr. George highly praised the exceptional achievements China has made since the reform and opening up policy. He thanked the Ministry of Water Resources for its tremendous support to water-related international exchange and cooperation, international organizations in particular, and thanked IWHR for its strong support to IAHR.

After the award-granting ceremony, Dr. George also attended a meeting for giving suggestions, saying that Chinese scientists and engineers have been playing an important in international water-related affairs, and that more attentions should be given to professional environmental protection training to engineers and water-related scientific education to the public.