Dr. Al-Suwaiyel, president of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) of Saudi Arabia, visited Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG) on May 7, 2010.

President Al-Suwaiyel first visited the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) large screen displaying system, high-performance computing system, sequencing platform, and Prof. WANG Qianfei’s laboratory. Afterwards the delegation held discussion with researchers of BIG.

Prof. Yu Jun, vice director of BIG, first gave a brief introduction to the institute, and then reported on the recent progress of the Date Palm Genome Project, a collaborative project initiated by KACST and BIG. In the following discussiob, both sides exchanged ideas on scientific topics and cooperation issues.

KACST is both the Saudi Arabian national science agency and its national laboratories. The science agency function involves science and technology policy making, data collection, funding of external research, and services such as the patent office.