Historical review on the progress of environmental science and technology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Ⅰ)
中国科学院环境科技发展回顾（Ⅰ）

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), founded on November 1, 1949, is the comprehensive research and development center in natural sciences and high technology in China. CAS has made a great contribution to the development of environmental science and technology, and to the environmental protection in China, since it initiated China's researches on environmental science and technology in 1950s. CAS conducted a series of scientific investigations on environmental pollution and research projects on pollution control and environmental toxicology in 1950s, then it extended its fields to environment and epidemiology of endemic disease such as Keshan disease and Kaschin-Beck disease, the elucidation of the relationship between environmental contamination and human health, development of methodologies and instruments for environmental monitoring in 1960s. A series of large scale scientific projects were carried out in 1970s and 1980s, such as the research project on the pollution survey of Guanting Reservoir in 1970s, environmental background database and environmental capacity for metals, generation, distribution and ecological impacts of acid rain, environmental behavior of POPs, as well as projects concerning environmental impact assessment and ecological engineering in 1980s. In 1990s, more attention has been paid to mechanistic aspects of chemical pollution and comprehensive environmental issues. Accordingly, the historical progress of environmental science and technology in CAS could be divided into 5 phases. In the first phase from 1949 to 1957, the thoughts of modern environmental science and technology emerged in CAS; in the second phase from 1958 to 1971, environmental science and technology in CAS was developed; the third phase from 1972 to 1979, remarked the rapid development; in the forth phase from 1980 to 1997, consistent development was achieved; and finally, the fifth phase from 1998 to now remarks the overtaking phase. This paper describes the R & D activities, the staff, the scientific infrastructure and ever the management of environmental science and technology in CAS before 1998.