Abstract: Professor Bai will provide an overview of nanoscience and technology development in China, including the national strategy, funding resources and most recent research achievements across the nano R&D spectrum, from fundamental research to applications. Prof. Bai will also present the challenges ahead and the future planning of China and CAS in the area of nano S&T.
Biography: Professor Chunli Bai, a globally renowned chemist and leading scientist in nanoscience, is the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is also the President of the Presidium of the Academic Divisions of CAS, and the President of The World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (TWAS).
Professor Bai graduated from the Department of Chemistry, Peking University, in 1978 and received his MSc and PhD degrees from the CAS Institute of Chemistry in 1981 and 1985, respectively. From 1985 to 1987, he worked with the US California Institute of Technology in the field of physical chemistry as a post-doctoral associate and visiting scholar. After returning to China in 1987, he continued his research at the CAS Institute of Chemistry. From 1991 to 1992, he worked as a visiting professor at Tohoku University in Japan. His research areas include the structure and properties of polymer catalysts, X-ray crystallography of organic compounds, molecular mechanics and EXAFS research on electroconducting polymers. In the mid-1980s, he shifted his research to the fields of scanning tunneling microscopy and molecular nanotechnology.
President Bai has a long list of scientific publications and has won more than twenty prestigious awards and prizes for his academic achievements, including the UNESCO Medal of “Contributions to Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology”. He has been elected member or foreign member of world-known academies of science or engineering, including the CAS, TWAS, US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Royal Society, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Australian Academy of Science (AAS), Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), and Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Additionally, Dr Bai is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ), and Honorary Doctor or professor of several foreign universities.
Professor Bai serves as the Chief Scientist for the National Steering Committee for Nanoscience and Technology and was the Founding Director of China National Center for Nanoscience and Technology. Moreover, he is the Member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials and Chemical Physics Letters.