Noted Chinese physicists gathered Friday at Tsinghua University, one of China's leading universities, to mark the World Year of Physics.

Recalling the history of Chinese physics development, Chen Jia'er, former president of China Physics Society and academician of China Academy of Sciences, said that physics has played an important role in the scientific development of China before the 16th century.

"Although the development of China's contemporary physics lagged more than 200 years behind the world, it has achieved world- renowned progresses since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, including the successful tests of atomic bombs and neutron bombs," he said.

Physics in the 20th century brought the world four technical theories of nuclear reactions, semiconductors, lasers and superconductors. It will still be the foundation of natural sciences in the future, said Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Innovation is necessary to the development of sciences in modern society. The nation should provide a better environment for physics in terms of attention, support, admiration and education, said Feng Changgen, an official with the China Association for Science and Technology.

"We must try to get more understanding and support to China's physics from the public by marking the World Year of Physics," he said.

In 1905, the 26-year-old Albert Einstein published five ground-breaking papers on relativity and quantum mechanics, which greatly advanced physics research around the world. The year of 1905 was thus called the miracle year of Einstein.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a proposal to name 2005 as the World Year of Physics.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2005)