Since Russian scientist Alexey Guryev came to China in 2013, he has witnessed the country's rapid social and economic development — and particularly its achievements in scientific and technological innovation.

Guryev, a leading expert in metallic materials and processing and an academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, won Hubei province's Chime Bell Award in 2016 and the Chinese government's Friendship Award in 2022.

In 2013, he began working at Wuhan Textile University, where he established an international research team focused on advanced manufacturing technology — high-end textile equipment — in cooperation with other experts.

Over the past decade, he has promoted the academic exchanges and cooperation between Hubei and Russia's overseas high-level research and development teams in the fields of high-end textile equipment and advanced manufacturing of metal materials, and made outstanding contributions to the in-depth implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, creating first-class disciplines and fostering cultural exchanges.

"In recent years, Hubei has made great efforts to achieve innovation-driven development, exploit superior scientific and educational resources to drive development and enhance innovative systems and capacity, achieving great and impressive progress in science and technology," he said.

"As to the textile industry with which I'm familiar, large textile enterprises have seen significantly improved production capacity and efficiency, more intelligent automation, China-made textile machinery, better workplace environments and more convenient network-based remote controls."

In September, Guryev won the Friendship Award of the Chinese government, the highest honor for a foreign expert in China. In the same year, he was invited to attend a reception celebrating the 73th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"I will continue my efforts in scientific and technological cooperation, talent training and cultural exchanges," he said. "I will carry out collaborative research on key components of high-end textile machinery and advanced manufacturing technology related to high-end bearings and strengthen cooperation with enterprises in an effort to provide theoretical and technical support for solving the bottlenecks of industrial development and contribute to Hubei's scientific and technological development and friendship between China and Russia."