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TWAS Newsletter
The Academy's quarterly magazine.

TWAS elects 46 new Fellows

TWAS elects 46 new Fellows

The 2019 class of new Fellows continues the trend of increasing the ratio of women in the Academy. And 10 are from countries previously under-represented – or unrepresented – in TWAS membership.

The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) elected 46 new Fellows to its membership today, expanding its efforts to increase representation by women and researchers from the world's science- and technology-lagging countries.

The vote taken at the 28th TWAS General Meeting in Trieste, Italy, increased the Academy's total permanent membership to 1,267 Fellows. With the results, the Academy crossed an historic milestone: For the first time since its founding 35 years ago, more than 100 countries will be represented in TWAS's ranks ­– 104 countries in all.

The Academy elected its first Fellows ever from Bolivia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Libya, Nicaragua and Zambia. In addition, members were elected from Iraq, Sudan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, which have been under-represented in TWAS.

TWAS now includes scientists born or working in 104 countries.

The vote continued the trend of increasing the proportion of women in the Academy. Of the 46 new Fellows elected for 2019, 13 of them are women, 28.2% of the total. Women now account for 13% of total membership.

China recorded more new TWAS Fellows than any other country, 14 in all.

The election results take effect on 1 January 2019. The new members will be formally inducted at the next TWAS General Meeting.

01-Agricultural Sciences

BOUAHOM, Bounthong (Lao PDR): (M) PhD, Director General, National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Vientiane, Lao PDR. The nominee's applied research in rice and livestock based intensification has significantly contributed to alternative to slash-and-burning agriculture, opium substitution and poverty alleviation in Laos. Member of the Science and Technology Council, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, he has received the Medal of Labor, 1st, 2nd and 3rd class.

CHEN, Hualan (China): (F) PhD, Director, National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory in China, Harbin, China. The nominee’s research on animal influenza viruses has significantly increased knowledge and the vaccines have been developed and used widely, thus playing important role for the control of H5 and H7N9 influenza viruses in poultry and for preventing human infections of these viruses. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she has received the National Award for Outstanding scientific and technological talents, 2016 L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science International Award, and the National Prize for Natural Sciences, among others.

GUHARAY, Falguni (Nicaragua): (M) PhD, Program Manager Climate Smart Cocoa Latin America, World Cocoa Foundation, Managua, Nicaragua. The nominee elucidated the biophysical basis of mechanoreception by discovering stretch-activated ion channels. His research helped to scale the biological control of vectors leading to elimination of malaria in Nicaragua and laid the foundation of ecological management of agroforestry systems. Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Nicaragua, he has received Coffee personality Nicaragua and the Research Scientist of the Year.

ZHANG, Fusuo (China): (M) PhD, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Beijing, China. The nominee has set up an example of agriculture development nationally and internationally; producing more grain with lower input and environment cost through developing an integrated nutrition management strategy and extending it to the whole China by a novel system “Science and Technology Backyard”. Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, he has received the TWAS 2014 Prize in Agricultural Sciences, Winner of the Award for Agronomy, Prize for Science and Technological Progress of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, the National Excellent Scientific Researcher and the Outstanding Achievement Award of Hohenheim University, the Advance of Science and Technology Award of Beijing Municipal Government several times, among many others.

02-Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology

BASU, Joyoti (India): (F) PhD, Senior Professor and Chairperson, Department of Chemistry, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India. The nominee has contributed in the area of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) pathogenesis uncovering the role of microRNAs in modulating the immune response to Mtb infection and the mechanisms involved in attenuating host macrophage apoptosis as an immune subversion strategy.

LIU, Leroy F. (Taiwan, China): (M) PhD, Chair Professor of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, China. The nominee’s major contributions in the discovery and mechanistic studies of type II DNA topoisomerases, processing and establishing the twin-domain model of DNA template supercoiling for transcription and identification of human DNA topoisomerases as therapeutic targets for cancer. Member of the Academia Sinica, he has received the Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award for Outstanding Preclinical Research in Cancer Chemotherapy, the George H. Hitchings Award for Innovative Drug Design and the Searle Scholar Award, among others.

XU, Tao (China): (M) PhD, Vice President, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The nominee has revealed a series of molecular mechanisms of membrane trafficking, establishing the current SNARE model of membrane fusion and respective novel and robust super-resolution imaging methodologies. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the Science and Technology Award of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, the National Natural Science Award and the 10th May 4th Youth Medal, among others.

03-Biological Systems and Organisms

BUSTAMANTE, Mercedes (Brazil): (F) PhD, Professor, Department of Ecology, University of Brasilia, Brazil. The nominees research highlighted the impacts of environmental changes on the functioning of Brazilian ecosystems (Amazonia and Cerrado) and consequences for climate change mitigation and adaptation and biodiversity conservation. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, she has received the Claudia Award and the Green Prize of the Americas.

MORAES R., Monica (Bolivia): (F) PhD, Researcher and Professor, Institute of Ecology, Biology Department, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia. The nominee’s major research is done in both the Amazonian vegetation of Bolivia and especially native palm species. She has published taxonomic works on conservation, ethnobotany and management of Bolivian palms. Member of the Bolivian Academy, she has received the Procer Pedro Domingo Murillo Award, the Scientific Woman from Bolivia and the Jubilee Award from IFS in Sweden.

SCHOLES, Mary (South Africa): (F) PhD, Director and Full Professor, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa. The nominee has used ecosystem based approaches to study plantation forests, savannas and food system, which significantly improved process understanding of how biogeochemical cycles affect ecosystem productivity. She has also made substantial contributions to understand and quantify NOx emissions.

VARSHNEY, Umesh (India): (M) PhD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. The nominee has shown roles for the highly conserved features in eubacterial initiator tRNAs. While formylation facilitates initiator tRNA recruitment to 30S subunit, 3GC bp in anticodon stem license its transitions through conformational changes converting the complex to elongation competent 70S ribosome. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the J.V. Bhat Endowment Oration, the G.N. Ramachandran Gold Medal, the Ranbaxy Research Award, JC Bose National Fellowship and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, among others.

WEI, Fuwen (China): (M) DSc, Professor, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China. The nominee has done pioneering studies in population genomics and metagenomics of wild animals; revealing demographic history, endangering causes and evolutionary potential of giant pandas, clarifying morphological, behavioral, physiological, genetic and gut microbiota adaptations to specialized bamboo diet. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the National Outstanding Worker of Science and Technology, the National Allowance Award, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and the Outstanding Young Scientist Grant.

04-Medical and Health Sciences incl. Neurosciences

DALKARA, Turgay (Turkey): (M) PhD, Director, Institute of Neurological Sciences and Psychiatry, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. The nominee has developed understanding the role of apoptotic mechanisms and nitric oxide in ischemia-reperfusion induced brain damage; pericytes in microcirculatory compromise after ischemia-reperfusion; cortical spreading depression and neuronal pannexin-1 channels in migraine pathophysiology. Member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences and of the European Academy of Sciences and arts, he has received the Kadir Has Outstanding Achievement In Science Award, the Vehbi Koç Medicine Award, the TUBITAK Science Award and the Hacettepe University Scientific Accomplishment Award, among others.

FAHAL, Ahmed Hassan (Sudan): (M) MD, Professor of Surgery, University of Khartoum, Sudan. The nominee has conducted various research work on mycetoma from molecular biology to clinical studies. Presently conducting the first ever double blind clinical trial on the treatment of mycetoma. Member of the Sudanese National Academy of Sciences, he has received the State of the Sudan Golden Medal, the Ziber Award for Excellence in Medical Research, the Sudanese American Medical Association Special Award, among others.

HUANG, He-Feng (China): (F) MSc, President, International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. The nominee has done pioneering studies of assisted reproductive technology and made outstanding contributions to prevention and control of birth defects in China through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and revealed the epigenetic mechanism underlying gamate-embryo origins of adult diseases. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she has received the National Science and Technology Progress Award twice and the first prize of Science and Technology National Award for Maternal and Child Health.

MARSH, Kevin (Kenya): (M) MB ChB  DTM&H, Professor, African Academy of Sciences, Nairobi, Kenya. The nominee has made major contributions to research in all aspects of malaria biology. In particular his group produced the definitive characterization of malaria in children in Africa, defined the link between immunity, transmission and disease. Member of the African Academy of Sciences, Academy of Medical Sciences UK and European Academy of Sciences and Arts, he has received the Drexel Prize for Infectious Diseases, EMBL lifetime achievement award for research on malaria, the Al Sumait Prize for African Development, the Prince Mahidol Award for Medicine and the Chalmers Medal of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, among others.

WYSE, Angela TS (Brazil): (F) PhD, Full Professor, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. The nominees major research involves biochemical, molecular and behavioral studies involving the neurotoxic mechanisms of homocysteine and neurometabolic diseases, with a focus on neuroprotection. The role of the Na+-ATPase in memory mechanisms and in the etiopathogenesis of brain diseases, as well as the neurobiology of menopause has also been elucidated.

05-Chemical Sciences

AL-SARRAJ, Emad Yousif (Iraq): (M) PhD, Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq. The nominee research area is of Photochemistry of Polymers and inorganic chemistry and also covers the inorganic photochemistry synthesis structure process. 

LITTER, Marta Irene (Argentina): (F) PhD, Researcher, Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The nominee has contributed in advanced oxidation-reduction processes and remediation nanotechnologies focused on heavy metals and arsenic and relevant contribution for the visibility of the Arsenic problem in Latin America. She has received Recognition as Pioneer on Photocatalysis in Argentina, 1st Prize on Environmental Ecotoxicology and Chemistry, 1st Prize on Environmental Technology and Engineering, the 1st Prize “Jaime Meller’ Trophy and the Mercosur Prize in Science and Technology, among many others.

PRADEEP, Thalappil (India): (M) PhD, Institute Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. The nominee has contributed to the areas of nanotechnology for affordable clean water and ultrasensitive devices. His technologies have reached over 8 million people so far. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the TWAS Prize in Chemistry, the Lifetime Achievement Research Award of IIT, the Indian Nanotech Innovation Award, the Nanotech Award, the Shanti Swaruip Bhatnagar Prize and the National Research Award in Nano Science and Technology, among others.

SIMUKANGA, Stephen (Zambia): (M) PhD, Director General, Higher Education Authority, Lusaka, Zambia. The nominees research deals with the utilization of local phosphate deposits, contributed to commencement of agronomic trials using partially acidulated phosphate rock found in Zambia. Member of the Zambia Academy of Sciences, he has received the Golden Star Academic and Educational Excellence Award, the Sardanis Trust Mining Prize, the Roan Consolidated Copper Mines Prize, among others.

VONGDARA, Boviengkham (Lao PDR): (M) PhD, Minister of Science and Technology; President, National Academy of Science of the Lao PDR, Vientiane, Lao PDR.. The nominee has done major study of natural polymers and its application in technology of polymer blends and established that natural polymer can significantly improve the properties and applicability of the polymer blends. Member and President of the National Academy of Science of the Lao PDR, he has received honorary professor and honorary doctor recognitions.

ZHANG, Tao (China): (M) PhD, Vice President, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The nominee has made pioneering contributions in establishing “Single-Atom Catalysis” as a new concept in chemistry. He has worked on selective conversion of cellulose to ethylene glycol, which opened a new route for biomass to high valuable chemicals. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the National Invention Prize three times, the Excellent Scientist Award, the Zhou Guang Zhao Foundation Award for Applied Science and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Science and Technology, among others.

ZHAO, Yuliang (China): (M) PhD, Distinguished Professor, Deputy Director-General, National Center for Nanosciences and Technology of China; and Director, CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Beijing, China.. The nominee has made pioneer contributions in nanosafety and nanomedical chemistry, which directly led to standardized quantitative methods for nanomaterials-ADME/T detections in vivo, and the new-concept cancer nanomedicine and sustainable development of nanotechnology. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the TWAS Prize in Chemistry, the National Award for Distinguished Scientist, the China Award for Outstanding Contribution on Toxicology, the 2002-2012 World Highly Cited Researcher Award, the CAS-Bayer Scientific Prize, the Wang Kuanchen Science Award, among many others.

06-Engineering Sciences

ABDURRAHMAN, Naeem Mohamed (Libya): (M) PhD, Professor, Department of Nuclear Engineering, The University of Tripoli, Libya. The nominee has developed advanced neutron imaging facility and methods for neutron CT and other tomographic modalities, and a graphite SDT spectrometer for nuclear materials characterization. He has developed extensive nuclear XS libraries and arbitrary high order transport methods for radiation transport.

JAIN, Anil Kumar (USA): (M) PhD, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, east Lansing, Michigan, USA. The nominee has made pioneering contributions to pattern recognition resulting in novel solutions for a rapidly evolving biometrics industry for automatic person recognition.

LIU, Ming (China): (F) PhD, Professor, Institute of Micoelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Director, key Laboratory of Micoelectronic Devices and Integrated Technology, Beijing, China. The nominee has pioneering contribution to Resistive Switching Memory’s mechanism, performance improvement and integration. She has also done seminal work on charge storage memories and related technologies and laid the foundation of 3D NAND in China. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she has received the Technological Progress of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, the State Natural Science Award, the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize and the National Invention Award twice, among others.

MURTY, Budaraju Srinivasa (India): (M) PhD, Professor, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. The nominee has done major work on thermodynamic prediction of glass formation in multicomponent systems. His concept of milling maps to identify conditions for phase formation by mechanical alloying has attracted a number of groups to synthesize  advanced materials through this route.

QU, Jiuhui (China): (M) PhD, Professor, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The nominee has developed the principle and technology of micro-pollutants species control for ensuring drinking water quality safety, one step As(III)-As(V) removal by oxidation and adsorption with binary metal oxides and water purification and synchronous energy production with electrochemical process. Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, he has received the National Technology Invention Award, the WIPO-SIPO Award for Chinese Outstanding Patented Innovation and Industrial Design twice, the Science and Technology Progress Award twice, among others.

07-Astronomy, Space and Earth Sciences

ADEYEMO, Olanike Kudirat (Nigeria): (F) PhD, Professor, Fish and Wildlife Unit, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The nominees major research relates to aquatic and wildlife epidemiology and ecotoxicology. She has contributed significantly to the understanding of epidemiology of diseases at the environment-wildlife-human interface and other cross-cutting issues like food safety and global public health.

AHMEDOV, Bobomurat (Uzbekistan): (M) PhD, Head, Theoretical Astrophysics Department, Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The nominee has done significant contribution in application of the general relativity theory to astrophysical processes and in use of state of art numerical and analytical techniques for studying electromagnetic and gravitational fields and radiation from relativistic stars and black holes. Member of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, he has received the TWAS/Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences Prize for Young Scientists, the Uzbekistan State of Order ‘Glory of Labor”, the Science Leader Web of Science Award, and AS-ICTP Regular Associateship, among others.

MANDRINI, Cristina Hemilse (Argentina): (F) PhD, Senior Researcher, Associate Professor, Instituto de Astronomia y Fisica de Espacio, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The nominee has contributed to the development of a novel method to compute the location of magnetic energy release in the solar atmosphere. It has been successfully applied to observation-based models of active and quiescent solar phenomena determining such locations unambiguously, as well as the characteristics of magnetic field. Member of the National Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences, she has received the Jorge Sahade Award, the Academic Excellence award and the Professional Trajectory Award, among others.

MARENGO ORSINI, Jose Antonio (Brazil): (M) PhD, General Coordinator, Research and Development, National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), Brazil. The nominee has developed issues on climate prediction, climate change and impacts, and natural disasters. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of the State of Sao Paulo, he has received the International Journal of Climatology Award, the Adalberto Serra Award, regular research associateship with AS-ICTP and the Jacobo Zender Award, among others.

08-Mathematical Sciences

AL-SALMAN, Ahmad (Jordan): (M) PhD, Professor of Mathematics, Yarmouk University, Jordan and currently on sabbatical leave at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. The nominee has developed a general systematic method for understanding the Lp mapping properties of integral operators with rough kernels. The complete solution of Walsh’s problem in 1974 on Marcinkiewicz integrals is one of his breakthrough results.

FANG, Fuquan (China): (M) PhD, Vice President, Capital Normal University, China; Dean, School of Mathematical Sciences, Capital Normal University, China, Beijing, China. The nominee has solved the embedding problem of 4-manifolds in 7-dim space left by Whitney, Hqefliger-Hirsch and Wu. Joint with Rong, proved the \pi_2 finiteness theorem (also by Petrunin-Tuschmann), joint with Grove and Thorbergsson, proved a rigidity theorem for positively curved polar manifolds. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the State Natural Science Award and the Qiu-Shi Prize for Outstanding Young Scholar.

KEUM, JongHae (Korea, Rep.): (M) PhD, Professor, Korea Institute for Advanced Studies (KIAS), Seoul, Korea Rep. The nominee has solved several difficult problems in Algebraic Geometry, especially in the classifications of finite groups acting on surfaces in any characteristic and in the theory of Q-hormology planes, which have brought deep insights into the structure of surfaces and Calabi-Yau varieties.

KOHAYAKAWA, Yoshiharu (Brazil): (M) PhD, Professor Titular (Full Professor), University of São Paulo, Brazil. The nominee was one of the first to promote the use of Szemeredi’s regularity method in the sparse setting, focusing on analogues of classical extremal problems in sparse random environments. More recently, he investigated limits of permutation sequences and successfully obtained strong estimates on the number B_h-sets. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the State of São Paulo.

PARANJAPE, Kapil (India): (M) PhD, Professor of Mathematics, IISER, Mohali, India. The nominee has proved some consequences of the Bloch-Beilinson conjectures in the context of hypersurfaces; proved the Hodge conjecture in some cases and studied a canonical stable vector bundle associated with a curve. He found a geometric characterization of algebraic surfaces defined over number fields and formulated a new correspondence between modular forms and Calabi-Yau varieties.

09-Physics

CHOU, Mei-Yin (Taiwan, China): (F) PhD, Vice President and Distinguished Research Fellow, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, China. The nominee’s major research on simple metal clusters elucidated the effect of the electronic shell structure. He has also contributed to the properties of various types of nanostructures.  Member of the Academia Sinica, she has received the Presidential Young Investigator Award, the College of Sciences Ralph and Jewel Gretzinger Moving Forward School Award, the Outstanding Taiwan Woman Scientist Award, among others.

SAHA-DASGUPTA, Tanusri (India): (F) PhD, Senior Professor and Satyendra Nath Bose Chair, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science; On Lien from S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, India. The nominee has made significant contribution in developing and applying a fast and accurate electronic structure method to understand the complex physical and chemical processes in a variety of materials e.g. oxides, quantum spin systems, metalorganic compounds. The method has allowed combining material-specific and many-body aspects, by adding chemical reality to the physically intuitive models. Member of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India, she has received the Swarnajayanti Fellowship, the MRSI-ICSC Superconductivity and Materials Science Annual Prize, the DAE Raja Ramanna Prize Lecture Award and appointed Head of the Max-Planck-India Partner Group, among others.

TIAN, Yongjun (China): (M) DSc, Professor, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China. The nominee has synthesized nanotwin-structured diamond, twice as hard as natural diamond, a breakthrough in superhard materials research. He established the hardness models for covalent materials that solve the difficulty of hardness prediction and designed a series of novel superhard materials. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the First Class Prize of the Natural Science Award twice, the Outstanding Contribution Award in Science and Technology of Hebei, and the Top Ten awards in Scientific and Technological Progresses of Chinese Colleges and Universities twice, among others.

UGARTE, Daniel Mario (Brazil): (M) PhD, Full Professor, Institute of Physics “Gleb Wataghin”, Universidade Estadual Campinas, Brazil. The nominee has developed spherical onion-like graphitic particles formed by electron irradiation, filed emission electron gun based on carbon nanotubes and understanding quantum conductance of atomic-size metal nanowires generated by stretching Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he has received the Zeferino Vaz Academic Productivity prize and the SCOPUS Productivity Elsevier and CAPES-Ministry of Education prize.

XU, Hongxing (China): (M) PhD, Professor, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, China. The nominee has studied the nanogap effect for huge electromagnetic enhancement, which is the physical basis of single-molecule SERS and many other plasmon-enhanced optical processes. He has also invented plasmonic logic gates and revealed the fundamental properties of plasmonic nanowire waveguides and networks. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the WanRen Program Leading Talent for Innovation of Science and Technology, the BaiQianWan Talents Program, the Raoyutai Physics Award and the CAS International Cooperation Award for Young Scientists, among others.

10-Social and Economic Sciences

BADIANE, Ousmane (USA): (M) PhD, Director for Africa, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC, USA. The nominee’s work was instrumental in helping African countries design and implement comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme which over the last 12years has guided development efforts and contributed to the recovery and strong performance of the agricultural sector in Africa.

LIU, Yansui (China): (M) Professor and Director General, Center for Regional Agriculture and Rural Development, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), CAS, Beijing, China. The nominee has contributed to improve government policies for rural revitalization and development through innovation of rural land-use and targeted poverty alleviation strategies in China according to interdisciplinary research of science-engineering-social management. He has received the TWAS Prize in Social Sciences, the Advanced Individual Awards, the Outstanding Scientist Award in Land Use and Rural Development, First Prize on Science and Technology Advancement Award five times, among many others.

ZENG, Yi (China): (M) PhD, Peking University: Professor of China Center for Economic Research, National School of Development; Director of Center for Healthy Aging and Development Study; Chief Scientist of Raissun Institute for Advanced Studies, and Duke University: Professor of Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and Geriatrics Division, School of Medicine; Director of Center for Chinese Population and Socioeconomic Studies, China Center for Economic Research, National School of Development, Peking University, Haidian District, Beijing, China. The nominee has developed a novel method for family household projection, which has been applied for academic, policy and business analyses. He has made outstanding contributions to research on fertility policy transition and in cross-natural-social sciences study on healthy aging. Elected as foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has received the Dorothy Thomas Prize, the Harold D. Lasswell Prize, the First-classe He Yindong prize and the Chinese Population Prize (Science and Technology), among others.