Bai Chunli to Lead CAS

[ Research and Findings ] CHINA that in 1998. The CAS also calculates leaders of the international scientific researcher at the University of Oregon that research and development by community, and shift their focus in Eugene. He notes that most CAS the KIP generated an income of 140 away from generating as many papers institutes are focused on academic billion renminbi and tax revenue as possible and towards genuine disciplines and lack the infrastructure of 22 billion renminbi in 2009 — originality and innovation. needed for commercializing research respectively 19.5 and 14.5 times the With its emphasis on applied or directing it towards national needs. levels in 2000. research, the new initiative also Others think that the emphasis But the report acknowledges "presents a major challenge to the on applied research, national needs that there is substantial room for management and organizational and revenue could stifle curiosity- improvement. For example, CAS capabilities of the academy", says driven research. And that, could put researchers should aim to become Richard Suttmeier, a science-policy a damper on genuine innovation.

rof. Bai Chunli, a well-known Institute of Technology, U.S.A., in Fellow of the Academy of Sciences chemist and leading scientist the field of physical chemistry as a for the Developing World (TWAS) in Pin nano-science, has recently post-doctorate associate and visiting 1997. He is also a Foreign Associate taken the presidency of the Chinese scholar. After he returned to China of the US National Academy of Academy of Sciences (CAS). Prof. in 1987, he continued his research Sciences (NAS) and Foreign Member BAI succeeded Prof. LU Yongxiang at the CAS Institute of Chemistry. of Russian Academy of Sciences, as the new leader of China’s major From 1991 to 1992, he worked Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society think-tank and research institution. as a visiting professor at Tohoku of Chemistry and Honorary Fellow Prof. Bai Chunli has been University in Japan. of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Executive Vice-President of CAS His research areas include the and honorary doctor or professor of since 2004. He has also served as Vice- structure and properties of polymer several foreign universities. Prof. Bai President of the China Association catalysts, X-ray crystallography also serves as the Chief Scientist for for Science and Technology (CAST), of organic compounds, molecular the National Steering Committee President of the Graduate University mechanics and EXAFS research for Nanoscience and Technology and of CAS (GUCAS), Director of the on electro-conducting polymers. was the Founding Director of China Academic Division of Chemistry In the mid-1980s, he shifted his National Center for Nanoscience and and Member of the Executive research to the fields of scanning Technology. Committee of the Presidium of the tunneling microscopy and molecular Prof. Bai is also the Vice Academic Divisions of CAS. nanotechnology. President of TWAS, Member of the Prof. Bai graduated from the Prof. Bai has a long list of Executive Committee of IUPAC Department of Chemistry, Peking scientific publications and has (2008-2009), and Member of the University in 1978 and received his won more than twenty prestigious International Editorial Advisory M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the awards and prizes for his academic Board of JACS, Angewandte Chemie, CAS Institute of Chemistry in 1981 achievements. Because of his Advanced Materials and Chemical and 1985 respectively. From 1985 to academic achievements, he was Physics Letters. ■ 1987, he worked with the California elected a Member of CAS and