Boston, Sept. 7, 2015, — Prof. Bai Chunli, a well-known chemist and leading scientist in nanoscience, is the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is also the President of the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (TWAS). Prof. Bai will give a lecture titled Science, Technology and Innovation in China at Harvard Science Hall B at 4 PM on Sept. 22.
In his talk, Prof. Bai will describe the general profile of the Chinese S&T and innovation with facts and figures. While Chinese society is experiencing a big transition, Innovation-driven Development strategy has become a Chinese national strategy. Prof. Bai will then talk about the challenges faced by the Chinese national S&T and innovation and the S&T institutional reform measures being taken by the Chinese government and S&T community. He will also introduce the unique positioning of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the national STI system, CAS Pioneer Initiative and its current focus in building itself into a world-class S&T institution.
Prof. Bai graduated from the Department of Chemistry, Peking University in 1978 and received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. 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 back 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 electro-conducting polymers. In the mid-1980s, he shifted his research to the fields of scanning tunneling microscopy and molecular nanotechnology.
Prof. Bai has a long list of scientific publications and has won more than twenty prestigious awards and prizes for his academic achievements, including 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), the Royal Society, the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 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.
He also 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.
This talk is sponsored by the Harvard Provost’s Office and co-sponsored by the Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.