The Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration (IGPCEA for short) is a national scientific research institution of public welfare with a 70-year glorious history. IGPCEA was formerly known as the Institute of Geophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was transferred to the China Seismological Bureau (later renamed China Earthquake Administration) in 1971. Since this integration, IGPCEA has been one of the most well-known geoscience research institutions in China and important part of the national innovation system of earthquake preparedness and disaster mitigation.
IGPCEA has been dedicated mainly into research fields of earthquake occurrence mechanism and earthquake disaster forecasting and engineering application, aiming at basic and applied research related to Geophysics. IGPCEA has been strategically focused on seismology, physics of the Earth’s interior, geomagnetism, engineering seismology and two bases of observation and experiment. While carrying out scientific research, IGPCEA not only strengthens prospective basic research, leads major breakthroughs in original achievements in earthquake-related fields, but also highlight the key common technology of earthquake observation, forecasting and early warning, earthquake resistant engineering and disaster assessment, so as to serve the development requirements of earthquake preparedness and disaster mitigation. In recent years, IGPCEA has focused on the "Transparent Crust" project of the National Earthquake Science and Technology Innovation Project and has taken the lead in the construction of China Seismic Experimental Site.
IGPCEA houses 7 research divisions, a Seismic Data Center, a CEA Key Laboratory of Focal Physics, a Center of Engineering Technology on Disaster Prevention, a Center of Science and Technical Information, and 8 offices of management and service. IGPCEA has led the construction of the Beijing Baijiatuan National Earth Observatory, which was accredited as ‘National Observation and Research Station’ and ‘International Science and Technology Cooperation Base’ by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST). IGPCEA undertakes work of China Committee of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI) and Secretariat of the Asian Seismological Commission, providing strong technical and cooperative support for regional and even international geophysics and seismology research.
IGPCEA has a total of 274 staff members, including 4 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 3 academicians of the Third World Academy of Sciences and 142 senior professionals. Among them, 61 professionals are supported by the "State Council Special Allowance", 6 young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions at the national level, 8 candidates selected for the "National Talent Project", 1 professional has received the title of "National Ten Thousand Talents Plan" and 1 research group is supported by the "National Creative Talent Project” of the MOST. In 2015, IGPCEA was selected as an "Innovative Talent Training Demonstration Base" by the MOST. Additionally, many professionals have won international reputations for IGPCEA with their contributions as president, secretary-general and other important position in international academic organizations. For instance, academician Chen Yun-tai has achieved International Award of American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2010 and Axford Award of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) in 2013 and 2 professionals have been honored with the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) Fellow for the first time.
IGPCEA has a post-graduate education system for Master's and PhD students, as well as a postdoctoral research system, which was one of the earliest to be authorized in China. IGPCEA currently has more than 190 postgraduates, 45 doctoral supervisors and 42 master supervisors. IGPCEA has been strengthening international exchanges and cooperation with many famous universities and research institutes throughout the world, and attaching importance to the joint training of doctoral students and young scientific and technological personnel.
In the past decade, IGPCEA has undertaken more than 20 national projects, including the National Key Research and Development Plan, Major Subject and Major Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Social Science Foundation of China, the International Cooperation Program of the MOST, the National Major Scientific Equipment Development Project, National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) and National Science and Technology Support Program. IGPCEA leads projects design, organization and implementation as legal entity of the "ChinArray Project" and "National Earthquake Social Service Project". IGPCEA has conducted research on the exploration and imaging of the mainland and sea crust’s fine structure, active source monitoring for regional scale medium changes, regional seismic travel-time tables and precise positioning of earthquake and the Geomagnetic Reference Field in China.
Through multi-disciplinary cross research, IGPCEA has made great scientific and technological achievements with great influence at home and abroad in the fields of seismic zoning map in China, key techniques on seismic zoning in the sea area, rapid determination of source parameters, ground motion determination for major engineering design and seismic safety of nuclear plants and realized the transformation service of scientific and technological achievements. Since 1980s, IGPCEA has provided seismic safety evaluation for hundreds of important construction projects, like offshore platform in Bohai oilfield, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and More than half of the nuclear plants, and has made important contributions for our country’s economic development. Moreover, IGPCEA has taken the lead in compiling a number of national standards, including "Code for seismic investigation and evaluation for nuclear plant project", "Code for Seismic Safety Evaluation of Engineering Sites" and "Seismic ground motion parameters zonation map of China".
IGPCEA has achieved fruitful scientific research results in the field of earthquake prevention and disaster reduction. The scientific research achievements presided over or participated in have won more than 30 national awards and 156 provincial/ministerial awards. Dozens of scholarly monographs of high academic value have been written and published by experts from IGPCEA, including representative ones such as Earthquake in China (Li Shanbang, 1981), The Introduction to Solid Geophysics (Zeng Rongsheng,1984), Engineering Seismology (Hu Yuxian, 1988) and Earthquake Source Physics (Chen Yuntai), which are all classics in the professional field.
IGPCEA has sponsored 5 academic journals, which are Acta Seismologica Sinica, Earthquake Science, Progress in Earthquake Sciences, Computerized Tomography Theory and Applications and Reviews of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. IGPCEA has collected over 200,000 volumes of geomagnetic, geophysical materials and professional books dating back to 1869, forming the richest and oldest collection of geophysical books and materials in China.
