Dear friends,

In a few days, the bells will ring out for the New Year. We’ll say goodbye to the year 2017 and greet the first ray of sunlight from 2018. On this occasion of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new, I would like to express my best wishes for the New Year to all our staff, postdocs, students, retired staff and friends from home and abroad.

Fruitful gains come with persistent efforts. In 2017, IHEP has made great efforts in cutting-edge scientific research, R&D, construction and operation of large science facilities, technology transfer and team building. All these efforts have led to great achievements, including the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment winning the top prize in the State Natural Sciences Awards, and the BEPCII project the highest award in the National Science and Technology Progress Award.

In 2017, we witnessed some very exciting moments.

On June 15^th, China's first homegrown X-ray telescope, Insight-HXMT, which aims to survey the Milky Way to observe celestial sources of X-rays, successfully lifted off into space. On October 16^th, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European Gravitational Observatory Virgo announced the discovery of the gravitational wave event GW170817. Insight-HXMT has made an important contribution to gravitational wave astronomy, by setting a strict upper limit on the electromagnetic radiation produced during this recently discovered gravitational wave event.

The first neutron beam was successfully obtained at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) on August 28^th. This is a great milestone for the CSNS project, marking the completion of the main construction and the start of the test operation phase. As the world's fourth pulsed spallation neutron source, CSNS will have a wide range of applications in research areas like materials science, life sciences, physics, chemical industry, new energy and so on. CSNS will serve as a high-level scientific research platform, and help improve national sustainable development.

Besides that, steady and stimulating progress has been achieved in many aspects of IHEP research activities.

Breakthroughs were made at the ADS project. Construction was begun on the Platform of the Advanced Photon Source, the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, and the Ali CMB Observatory. The CEPC Industrial Promotion Consortium was established. The feasibility study report on the High Energy Photon Source was finished, and the project proposal was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission. Medical PET equipment, safety and precision testing technology were developed further and moved towards industrialization. The results of achievements in anti-tumor nano-drug research were successfully transferred to industry. All this encouraging progress could not have been made without the hard work of all our IHEP colleagues.

Looking forward to 2018, we have some formidable tasks and challenges ahead of us. The test facilities for HEPS and CSNS will be complete and submitted to national acceptance review. Detector R&D at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory should be finished on time and with high quality. We also anticipate more results from HXMT and promote pre-research on the  HERD and eXTP projects.

In 2018, we foresee active international collaboration and exchanges and we hope to attract more talented personnel to join our team. We will embrace the opportunities and challenges and work harder to become one of the future leaders in global high-energy physics research.

Again, I would like to send my heartfelt greetings to you and your family. May your New Year be filled with success, health, prosperity and happiness.

Happy New Year!

Wang Yifang

December 29, 2017