Bai Chunli

Bai Chunli 白春礼
File:Professor Chunli Bai ForMemRS.jpg Bai Chunli in 2014, portrait via the Royal Society
Born	(1953-09-26) September 26, 1953 Dandong, Liaoning, China
Residence	Beijing
Nationality	Chinese
Fields	Nanoscience Chemistry Scanning probe microscopy
Institutions	Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory Chinese Academy of Sciences
Alma mater	Peking University
Notable awards	ForMemRS (2014)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Bai.

Bai Chunli (Chinese: 白春礼) (born September 26, 1953) is a Chinese physical chemist and nanoscientist.

He is President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor of Chemistry, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Beijing. He also serves as President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the co-chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology and the president of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Education and early life

Bai's father was a primary school teacher who encouraged Bai to read. In 1966, he went to middle school, graduating with a High School Certificate in 1970, at the time of the Cultural Revolution. After high school he joined the Down to the Countryside Movement with other young people. Bai Chunli worked in the Inner Mongolia production and construction corps for four years. In 1974, after the whole soldiers' secret ballot and the exam, Bai Chunli was recommended to be a student at Peking University graduating in 1978. In 1981 he received a master's degree of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in 1985 earned a doctor’s degree.

Career

In January 1978, after graduating from the university, Bai Chunli was assigned to the Chinese Academy of Sciences' applied chemistry department, which was the beginning of his research career in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 1985 to 1987, he did postdoctoral research in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. In 1996, he was the Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; in 2011, he took over from Lu Yongxiang as sixth President of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

As of 2014 Bai is currently a part-time professor at Peking University, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Nankai University, and the China University of Geosciences, and a visiting professor at Liaoning Normal University and Nanjing Audit University.

Research

Bai's research is mainly in the field of nanotechnology and scanning tunneling microscopy, where his work focuses on scanning probe microscopy techniques, and molecular nano-structure, as well as nanotechnology research. He has published a large number of books in both Chinese and English. He was an alternate committee member of the 15th and the 16th CPC Central Committee, and the sixth Vice President of the China Association for Science and Technology.

Bai conducted research in areas such as polymer catalyst structure and property, organic compounds of crystal structure X-ray diffraction, molecular mechanics and conductive polymers of EXAFS, etc. He has been engaged in the study of scanning tunneling microscopy, which has been a significant field in nanotechnology (NT), since the mid-1980s. Many of his works, both in Chinese and English, have been published by Germany Springer Publish Company and Scientific Company and many other publishing houses. Furthermore, he has earned many other awards such as Internationalism which is awarded by the International Chemical Industry association.

Bai Chunli is one of the pioneers in the field of scanning probe microscopy. The laboratory he leads organized much wide-ranging and detailed research. . Bai has made many contributions to STM study nationally and internationally. He has created a team which aims to increase cooperation between China and the United States on the issue of regularly using energy sources. Generally speaking, Bai has devoted himself to shortening the scientific distance between China and foreign countries.

He is the editor of China Basic Science magazine, and plays an important role in the political field. In his youth, he was named the best worker around China and one of China's Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons among other distinctions.

His research has been published widely in peer reviewed journals and books.

Awards and honours

Bai was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as well as an academician of the Third World Academy of Science. Other awards include:

• The award as an academician of TWAS (Third World Academy of Sciences) 发展中国家科学院 (原"第三世界科学院")
• The award as an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences 中国科学院 (化学部) 院士
• Foreign academician of the American Academy of Sciences 美国科学院外籍院士
• Honorary Fellow of the British Royal Society of Chemistry 英国皇家化学会荣誉会士
• Foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences 俄罗斯科学院外籍院士
• Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences 印度科学院荣誉院士
• Corresponding fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (2013)
• Honorary member of Chinese Association for Science and Technology (2011)
• Elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2014.

His nomination for the Royal Society reads:

Dr. Chunli Bai is one of the pioneers in the field of nanoscience. In the mid-1980s, he successfully designed and developed China’s first atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning tunneling microscope (STM), low-temperature STM, ultrahigh vacuum-STM, and ballistic electron emission microscope. These led to the earliest technological tools in the country for manipulating single atoms and molecules, and characterizing surfaces and interfaces. He successfully established a methodology for the study of molecular assembly on solid substrate surfaces, such as the imaging of functional molecules on graphite surfaces. His use of alkane-assisted adsorption and assembly in this context is particularly noteworthy. Beyond his outstanding scientific achievements, Dr. Bai’s leadership role in Chinese science includes service as the President of the Chinese Chemical Society (1998-2010), and Vice-President (1996-2004), Executive Vice-President (2004-2011) and President (2011-present) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In 2012 he became the first Chinese President of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).

Public appearances

File:BAI Chunli, vice presidenten for kinas vetenskapsrad talar vid oppnandet av CAS-Nordic 2007 i Lund 2007-09-17.jpg

Chunli Bai at the opening of CAS Nordic in Lund in 2007

On April 13, in the opening ceremony of the Chinese Chemical Society 28th Annual Meeting, Bai Chunli gave a speech. He reviewed the role that chemistry plays in human life, and pointed out that solving the social public security problems is also a mission for chemistry.

On May 1, Bai Chunli attended the closing ceremony of the 14th Sino-US Joint Committee which was held in Beijing, and joined some relevant activities.

May 8, Bai Chunli, as the team leader of the Daya Bay neutrino experiment, he shared the four successful aspects of the experiment with internet users. He insisted that from a governmental and national perspective, there should be a long-term vision and attention on basic research.