The 9th National Congress of the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME) was successfully held in Beijing on December 12, 2020. Sixteen academicians, including Lyu Zhaoping, member of the Leading Party Members'' Group and Executive Secretary of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), Qian Qihu, the winner of China''s Highest Science and Technology Award, and 316 representatives of members from all over the country attended the meeting, which was presided over by academician Feng Xiating, President of the Society. President of CSRME, academician He Manchao, delivered the opening speech, and academician Qian Qihu, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Society, had a keynote speech on the development of the Society. The representatives of the CSRME elected 169 members of the 9th Council and 5 supervisors of the 2nd Supervisory Board by secret ballot. Professor He Chuan and Professor Yan Qixiang of our School of Engineering were elected to the 9th Council of the CSRME.

Figure 1. The 9th National Congress of the CSRME

At the first plenary session of the 9th Council of the CSRME held in the afternoon, Professor He Chuan, Vice President of SWJTU, was elected as the new Deputy Director of the CSRME by secret ballot and delivered a speech of thanks. He firstly expressed his heartfelt respect to the leaders of the older generation of the Society such as academician Qian Qihu and academician Sun Jun, and the colleagues of the Society for their help and trust, and he felt particularly proud to be a board member. Professor He Chuan said that he would always adhere to the correct political direction in the future work of the Society, take the development of the Society as the core task, and actively contribute to the development of the Society. As an important link of communication between SWJTU and the Society, he would do his share of responsibility and obligation in order to further strengthen the cooperation between the two sides and give full play to the role of the University and the Society in serving the national strategy. He hoped that the CSRME will be built into a world-class society as soon as possible.

The CSRME has 40 branches, 20 local societies, more than 40 member groups and more than 20,000 individual members, covering many industries such as water conservancy and hydropower, coal and petroleum, geology and mining, transportation, municipal construction, disaster prevention and control, environmental protection, national defense engineering, etc. It is an important academic organization in the field of rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering, which is cross-industry, cross-department and cross-discipline, and has an important influence at home and abroad.

Figure 2. He Chuan delivers a speech of thanks.