Finding new ways to get the measure of pollution

Aiming high

Having vowed to pursue innovation-driven development, China is exploring the establishment of coordinated, efficient platforms to integrate basic and applied research and industrialization.

Guangdong, which accounted for about 10 percent of national GDP last year, was one of the first places in the country to pilot reforms to boost innovation, including measures to incentivize the commercialization of R&D findings.

The southern province is now home to more than 40,000 big high-tech companies, and last year it attracted investment of 250 billion yuan in R&D.

Thanks to the growing importance of the development of state-of-the-art scientific instruments, Guangzhou Hexin Instrument has received support from national programs, including major scientific equipment development projects.

The company's sales revenue reached 130 million yuan last year, a 50 percent rise from 2017, and it ranks among the top 20 global mass spectrometer companies.

In 2017, a research institution in the United States wanted to buy a real-time single-particle aerosol mass spectrometer on the global market. Zhou's company won the order because it was one of the few in the world capable of mass-producing the instrument.

Its success brought global recognition for Chinese-made high-end mass spectrometers.

With support from the Guangdong government, the company is building an industrial base that will integrate R&D, manufacturing, sales and technical services. It will begin operations this year.

Zhou is excited that more than 10 mass-spectrometer companies have emerged in China.

"We can promote the development of the mass-spectrometer industry together, and I hope the new base will help to create a more complete industrial chain," he said.

As a professor at Jinan University, Zhou has taught dozens of postgraduates in the field. He believes the systematic nurturing of talent is vital for China's development of high-end scientific instruments, and he hopes more scientists and entrepreneurs will join him in the battle against pollution.