IN THE NEWSWeimin Wu: pioneer physicist on Chinese science's turbulent past, promising futureTimes Higher Education, 25 February 2016While the first 30 years of new China's scientific development was a self-reliant era marked by the detonations of the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb, and the launch of the first artificial satellite, the second 30 years after the reform and opening up was signified by the introduction of the Internet to China. Weimin Wu is a unique legendary figure whose career spanned both periods. He not only contributed to the bomb and satellite projects, but also sent out the email from China to Switzerland in 1986, which was listed as the first event in the history of China's Internet development. The Tiananmen Square Protest in 1989 changed his life's trajectory, leading him to eventually immigrate to the US. His personal emotional life is also remarkable. With his experiences immersed in both Eastern and Western cultures, Wu came to believe in the convergence theory of social development, which provides a refreshing perspective for the readers. The autobiography records the details of his legendary life stories, from taking pictures with the Chinese leader Mao Zedong, to shaking hands with Deng Xiaoping; from being removed from the Institute of High Energy Physics, to the repealing of his Chinese passport. The story line is full of engaging ups and downs. In that turbulent era, Wu's rich emotional experiences and love stories were also a mirror for the Chinese society, with some details comparable to the plots of suspense novels and movies. The book is well illustrated with many pictures and flows smoothly with a simple writing style. The stories are factual and moving, all too realistic. The author has sincerely revealed his true self to the reader, and at the same time, faithfully described that period of history, giving the reader a grasp on the true workings of history. His comparison of the Eastern and Western cultures, analysis of science and superstition, interpretation of religion and arts, and his 'convergence' theory of social development, are all unique and insightful. This book faithfully tells Weimin's professional and personal life on the cusp and takes readers on a journey to explore true history through an ordinary person's stories.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Verification and Evaluation of Computer and Communication Systems, VECoS 2021, which took place in November 2021. Due to COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held virtually. The 5 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 12 submissions. The aim of the VECoS conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners in the areas of verification, control, performance, and dependability evaluation in order to discuss state of the art and challenges in modern computer and communication systems in which functional and extra-functional properties are strongly interrelated. Thus, the main motivation for VECoS is to encourage the cross-fertilization between various formal verification and evaluation approaches, methods and techniques, and especially those developed for concurrent and distributed hardware/software systems.

This book is a tribute to Jack Steinberger (1921-2020) whose contributions play an important role in the development of particle physics. Together with Leon M Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, he was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the muon neutrino. The book begins with an introduction by Julia Steinberger and a collection of photographs of Jack Steinberger, followed by the sharing by Jack's former colleagues, students, and friends of their interactions with him on research in physics as well as many personal reminiscences. The second part of the book is a special collection of published works by Jack Steinberger and collaborators and a commentary by W-D Schlatter on Jack Steinberger's early papers, Nobel Prize experiment, CP-violation in kaon decay, CDHS neutrino experiment, and ALEPH e+e- experiment.

This book is a labor of love for Dr Wu Weimin whose favorite photography subjects are ordinary events which capture the heart of the common folks. The cameras Dr Wu uses may not be the most sophisticated but the images he has taken are truly striking. His award-winning collections of photographs are very well received worldwide. The introduction written by Dr Rick Vidal of Fermilab was endorsed by Dr Leon Lederman, Nobel Laureate in Physics (1988). Being a physicist by training, Dr Wu was among the pioneer scientists who helped to develop China's first atomic bomb and to launch its first satellite. He also participated in building the first Chinese electron-positron collider. Another extraordinary feat is that he sent out the very first e-mail from China on 25 August 1986.