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TWAS Newsletter
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TWAS elects 44 new Fellows

TWAS elects 44 new Fellows

The election took place at the Academy's 26th General Meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday, 19 November 2015.

The forty-four new Fellows bring the total TWAS membership to 1178. Ten new members are women.

Thirty-one members hail from Brazil (3), China (13), India (12) and the USA (3). One each (11 total) live and work in Argentina, Austria, Cameroon, the Dem. Rep. of Congo, the Isl. Rep. of Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, the Palestinian Autonomous Territories, the Philippines, South Africa and Sweden. Five live in countries not significantly represented in the Academy's membership, including one in the Democratic Republic of Congo where TWAS had for some time not been represented at all.

The new TWAS Fellows, who will be inducted at the Academy's 27th General Meeting in 2016, are:

01-Agricultural Sciences

  • GUI, Jian-Fang (China): (M) PhD, Fish Genetics Professor, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China. The nominee has identified significant sex-,growth- and immune-related genes and genetic markers for Fish Genetic Breeding, and revealed regulation mechanisms on fish unisexual gynogenesis and sexual reproduction. He has bred two novel varieties for aquaculture. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), he has received the CAS Award of Science and Technology for Development Advancement, the National Innovation Achievement Award in Industry-University-Research Collaboration and other national awards.
  • KELEMU, Segenet (Ethiopia): (F) PhD, Director General and CEO, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya. The nominee has established a cutting edge biosciences research/capacity building Hub. Her key findings include unique scald disease symptoms in Ethiopian barleys, developing the first protocol for cloning vector transfer system in the rice bacterial blight pathogen and assembly of new lines of differential hosts for pathotyping the fungal pathogen Colleotrichum gloeosporioides. Member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and African Academy of Sciences, she has received the TWAS Prize in Agricultural Sciences, the L'Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, and the Certificate of Recognition in Science and Technology from the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Technology, among others.

02-Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology

  • AHMAD, Wasim (Pakistan): (M) PhD, Tenured Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. The nominee mapped/identified several genes involved in causing Hearing Impairment, Skin disorders. He is the discoverer of human hairless gene (atrichia). He also identified the mouse homologue of the human hairless gene as the basis of the mouse rhino phenotype. Member of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, he has received the PAS-Distinguished Scientist in Biochemistry recognition, the COMSTECH Award in Biology and the Sitara-e-Imtiaz from the Government of Pakistan, among others.
  • FOGUEL, Debora (Brazil): (F) PhD, Full Professor of Biochemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Bioquimica Médica Leopoldo de Meis, Centro de CiÉncias da Sa£de, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The nominee was one of the key leaders in establishing research in amyloid field in Brazil. Her main interest is in transthyretin-related amyloidosis, prion's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, she has received the Scientist of Rio de Janeiro State Awards six times and the Medal of the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit - Comendador.
  • SHARMA, Amit (USA / Overseas citizen of India): (M) PhD, Professor, Group Leader and Staff Scientist, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India. The nominee has made significant contributions to understanding of structural principles that underlie molecular function of malaria parasite proteins. He studied malaria proteins using multi-disciplinary approaches including bioinformatics, structural biology, biological assays, parasite biology and inhibitor development. Member of the Indian Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, he has received the Ranbaxy Science Research Award in Basic Medical Sciences, the JC Bose Fellowship Award, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Sciences, and the B.M. Birla Prize in Biological Sciences, among others.

03-Biological Systems and Organisms

  • CHATTOPADHYAY, Samit (India): (M) PhD, Scientist-G, National Centre for Cell Science, Pune University Campus, Pune, India. The nominee has made remarkable contributions in the field of gene regulation with translational applications in cancers, AIDS, tuberculosis, inflammatory diseases like colitis and asthma and novel peptides, small compound and nano particles based therapies. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the JC Bose Fellowship of DST, India, and Associate Dean of NCCS, Pune.
  • CONCEPCION, Gisela (Philippines): (F) PhD, Professor, Marine Science Institute and Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of the Philippines System, Quezon City, Philippines. The nominee has isolated and reported the greatest number of bioactive marine natural products in the Philippines. Member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Philippines and the Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering, she has received The NAST Outstanding Scientific Paper Award, the University of the Philippines Centennial Faculty Grant Award several times and the Gregorio Y. Zara Award for Basic Research, among others.
  • HASAN, Gaiti (India): (F) PhD, Senior Professor, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India. The nominee has shown that Drosophila flight circuit neurons are sensitive to reduced levels of IP3 signaling and Store-operated calcium entry for their development and function and that IP3 signaling in neurons modulates organismal responses to nutrition. Member of the Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences, she has received the Rockefeller Biotechnology Career Fellowship and is a member of the Asia-Pacific Molecular Biology Network.
  • SOBTI, Ranbir Chander (India): (M) PhD, Vice-Chancellor, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), Lucknow, India. A cytogeneticist, the nominee has detected molecular interrelations of bruchid and curculionid pests using RFLP and RAPD markers, determined the molecular taxonomic position of the termites of North India, and has also been working on the buffalo and goat genomes. In addition, he has been studying genetic polymorphisms in humans in relation to cancer and other diseases. Member of the National Academy of Sciences the Indian National Science Academy and of the national academies of medical sciences and agricultural sciences, Sobti has received the INSA Young Scientist Medal, UGC Career Award, Punjab Rattan, JC Bose Oration and Sriram Oration awards and the Life time Achievement Award of the Panjab Academy of Sciences.

04-Medical and Health Sciences incl. Neurosciences

  • ABDOOL KARIM, Quarraisha (South Africa): (F) PhD, Associate Scientific Director, CAPRISA, South Africa. The nominee is a pioneer in HIV prevention science, having led the studies which showed that antiretrovirals prevent sexually transmitted HIV and genital herpes in women. Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences, she has received several awards, including the TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize, the TWAS Prize for Medical Sciences and the SAMRC Scientific Merit Award, among others. Recipient of the 2016 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards for Africa and the Arab States.
  • DING, Jian (China): (M) PhD, MD, Director, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, and Prof., Department of Anti-tumor Pharmacology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. The nominee successfully integrated natural product-based anticancer drug discovery with mechanism-driven signalling profiling. He played a leading role in the development of six cancer drug candidates that are in phase II or preclinical studies. Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, he won the 2008 Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize, and the 2009 Second degree of National Natural Science Award.
  • MBANYA, Jean Claude Nganou (Cameroon): (M) PhD, Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology; Director, Biotechnology Center and Coordinator Doctoral School of Life Sciences, Health and Environment, University of Yaounde, Cameroon. The nominee's research has been the basis for national/regional policies for surveillance, control/prevention of diabetes and NCDs in Africa, WHO AFRO and PAHO. It led to the development of regional packages for NCDs and diabetes as well as basis for the development of national programs in the Afro region. Member of the Cameroon Academy of Sciences, he has received the Chevalier de l'ordre de la Valeur (Cameroon), the recognition award for outstanding service and leadership from the International Diabetes Federation, and the 16th Dr. Mohan's DSC Gold Oration Award (India), among others.
  • RABINOVICH, Gabriel Adrian (Argentina): (M) PhD, Senior Investigator (Superior), National Research Council (CONICET); Full Professor, Faculty of Exact and National Sciences, Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The nominee discovered the function of galectins in immune and vascular systems. He demonstrated that galectins can translate glycan-encoded information into novel regulatory programs that control inflammation and allow cancer cells to evade immune responses and promote blood vessel formation. Member of the National Academy of Science of Argentina, he was appointed a TWAS Young Affiliate and has received the TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences, the Bunge and Bom Award for Excellence in Experimental Medicine, the Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Award of the Argentine National Senate, The Elaine R. Shepard Memoraial Investigator Award from NY Cancer Research Institute, and the Bernardo Houssay Award in Medicine twice, among others.
  • SUNDAR, Shyam (India): (M) MBBS, MD, Professor of Medicine, Instiutte of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India. The nominee introduced rK39 dip stick in the diagnosis and the first oral drug miltefosine for the treatment of kala-azar. He revolutionized the treatment of VL by introducing single dose treatment with liposomal amphotericin B, and more recently a highly successful short course multidrug treatment for VL. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the Anne Maurer Cecchini Award, the Dr. VR Joshi Award, the Ranbaxy Research Award and the Dr. Kamla Menon Medical Research Award, among others.

05-Chemical Sciences

  • AJAYAGHOSH, Ayyappanpillai (India): (M) PhD, CSIR Outstanding Scientist and Professor, Chemical Science and Technology Division, CSIR National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Trivandrum, India. The nominee has made landmark contributions in supramolecular chemistry, especially in the design and synthesis of a new class of soft materials called pi-gels, by molecular self-assembly, with great potential for photonic and electronic applications, especially in sensing and imaging. Member of all three Indian science academies and the Royal Society of Chemistry in London, he has won several awards, including the TWAS Prize in Chemistry, the Khwarizmi International Award and the CRSI Silver Medal, among others.
  • LIU, Zhongfan (China): (M) PhD, Director/Changjiang Chair Professor, Institute of Physical Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China. The nominee greatly contributed to the CVD growth methodology of carbon nanomaterials, pioneered the chemical self-assembly of carbon nanotubes together with a series of tip chemistry and nanoeletrochemistry studies. His methods offer a highly-efficient route for modulating the energy band structures of graphene towards nanoelectronics. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has won several awards, the latest being the Yangfuqing-Wangyangyuan Prize 2009 and the CCS-AkzoNobel Chemical Sciences Award 2012.
  • MOOSAVI-MOVAHEDI, Ali Akbar (Iran I.R.): (M) PhD, Professor, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran, Iran. The nominee's work contributed to the raea of biomacromolecular ligand binding theories that provide a deep understanding of biomacromolecular interactions. He theorized and coined the terminology of ╥hydrophobic salts╙ in the literature for surfactants at low concentrations upon interaction with proteins. Member of the Iran Academy of Sciences (IAS), he has received the Khawarazmi International Prize, the First Class Medal for Research, the Elsevier-Scopus International Award for Top Research, and the Avicenna Festival First Rank Award for Top Researcher, among others.
  • TABA, Kalulu ( Congo D.R.): (M) PhD, Professor, University of Kinshasa, Faculty of Sciences, Kinshasa, D.R. Congo. The nominee shed light on pi-electrons steric effet and its implications in organic chemistry. He developed a method of transmetallation ans showed its applications. His studies of natural products focused on plant extracts in solar water disinfection and bioactive molecules against malaria. Member of the committee in charge of setting up the D.R. Congo Academy of Sciences, he has received fellowships from the Weizmann Institute, Fulbright and DAAD.
  • XIE, Yi (China): (F) PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China. The nominee has made outstanding contribution in inorganic solid state chemistry at nanoscale, especially in inorganic functional solids with modulated electron and phonon structures. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), she has received the IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering, the CAS Outstanding Female Scientist Award, the Top Ten National Excellent Science and Technology Workers award, the TWAS Prize in Chemistry, the CAS-Bayer Young Scientist Award, and the CAS Young-Outstanding Scientist Prize, among others.
  • ZHANG, Hongjie (China): (M) PhD, Director, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization and Professor, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin, China. The nominee has contributed to the synthesis of rare earth materials, luminescent, electric, magnetic and catalytic properties and application of rare earth materials and invented rare earth luminescent powder for AC LED lighting. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, among others, he has received the National Natural Science Award, the Outstanding Young Scientist Prize and the Gold Kangaroo World Innovation Award.

06-Engineering Sciences

  • CHEN, Guanrong (China): (M) PhD, Chair Professor, Centre for Chaos and Complex Networks, City University of Hong Kong, China. The nominee has made fundamental contributions to applied chaos theory and to network science and engineering. Member of the Academia Europaea, he received the Euler Gold Medal, the Ho-Leung-Ho-Lee Prize on Science and Technology Award and the State Natural Science Award of China twice, among others.
  • CIMINELLI, Virginia Sampaio Teixeira (Brazil): (F) PhD, Professor,Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Gerais Universidade Federal de Minas-UFMG and Director, National Institutes of Science and Technology on Mineral Resources, Water and Biodiversity, Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil. The nominee has contributed to advance the understanding of surface-reactivity in processes such as dissolution, precipitation and sorption in the field of environmental hydrometallurgy. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, she has received the UNESCO-Mercosul Award of Science and Technology, the FUNDEP Award and the National Order of Scientific Merit of Brazil, among others.
  • ENSHASSI, Adnan (Palestinian Autonomous Territories): (M) PhD, Distinguished Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic University of Gaza, Palestinian Aut. Terr. The nominee's research interests include safety in construction, productivity improvement, risk management, dispute avoidance, contract management and procurement management. Member of the Palestinian Academy for Science and Technology, he was awarded the University Scientific Research Prize for Engineering Sciences from Palestine twice and he has received several grants and fellowships to universities in Germany, USA, France, among others.
  • MANNA, Indranil (India): (M) PhD, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India; Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Department, IIT Kanpur, Kharagpur, India. The nominee has contributed in establishing microstructure-property-parameter correlation in nano- materials (metals/alloys, nano/ferrofluid, sensor, coatings) including size dependent allotropy, amorphous Al alloys and laser/plasma aided surface engineered components. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the TWAS Prize in Engineering Sciences, the Gopal Tripathy Memorial Lecture Award, the JC Bose Fellowship of DST, India, and the Binani Gold Medal, among others.
  • PANDIT, Aniruddha Bhalchandra (India): (M) PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Dean, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India. The nominee has made pioneering contribution in elucidating cavitationally induced physio-chemical and biological transformation. Using Theoretical and mathematical analysis of the cavitation phenomena and in particular hydrodynamic cavitatin, he has successfully exploited cavitation over lab to plant scale. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the JC Bose Fellowship of DST, India, the Wipro Earthian Award, the Dr. C.V. Raman Award for Excellence in Engineering and Technology Education, and the Leap of Faith Award for the Most Innovative Technology, among others.
  • POOR, Harold Vincent (USA): (M) PhD, Dean of Engineering and Applied Science, and Michael Henry Strater University Professor, Engineering Quadrangle, Princeton University, NJ, USA. The nominee has made landmark contributions to communications and signal processing spanning a very broad spectrum, including fundamental algorithms significantly expanding the applicability of signal processing technology, and major contributions to the development of wireless communications from its inception to today. Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Foreign Member of the UK Royal Society and the Academia Europaea, he has received the EURASIP Athanasios Papoulis Award, the URSI Booker Gold Medal, the IET Ambrose Fleming Medal, D.Sc., D.Eng and D.Tech honoris causa from four universities and the national Science Foundation Director's Award, among others.

07-Astronomy, Space and Earth Sciences

  • CHEN, Deliang (Sweden): (M) PhD, August Rühss Chair and Assistant Dean for research of the Science Faculty, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The nominee created a framework in which the atmospheric circulation is appropriately described in a climate context, which bridges the gap between weather and climate. It has been widely and successfully used in studies including sea level, air pollution, lake biology, and statistical downscaling. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, he received the Pro Arte et Scientia Medal by the University of Gothenburg and the Distinguished Young Scientist Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences, among others.
  • JOG, Chanda J. (India): (F) PhD, Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. The nominee showed importance of gas for galactic dynamics via multi-component gravitational instabilities. She has proposed a novel mechanism for triggering starbursts via cloud compression, made pioneered study of lopsided asymmetry in galaxies and modified Jeans criterion due to external tidal field. Member of the three Indian science academies, she is a member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and has received the Prof. S.K. Chatterjee Award and the JC Bose Fellowship of DST, India, among others.
  • LEPINE, Jacques (Brazil): (M) PhD, Professor, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciéncias Atmosféricas, São Paulo, Brazil. The nominee contributed to the discovery of first H2O mega-maser, ring-shaped gap in the distribution of interstellar matter at the co-rotation radius of the Galaxy, step in the metallicity distribution at co-rotation in our galaxy and other galaxies and many new T-Tauri stars in the PDS survey. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Sïo Paulo State Academy of Sciences.
  • NARAYAN, Ramesh (USA): (M) PhD, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, Harvard University, Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge MA, USA. The nominee's most notable research contributions are in two areas he pioneered: (i) Advection-dominated accretion flows around black holes. (ii) Investigations of black hole physics using astrophysical techniques, e.g., finding evidence for the event horizon, and measuring black hole spin. Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, London, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he has received the US Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Young Associate Award (India) and the IISc-DST Distinguished Visiting Chair Professorship at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, among others.
  • OKEKE, Francisca Nneka (Nigeria): (F) PhD, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. The nominee has made significant contributions to the understanding of daily variations of the ion currents in the upper atmosphere which adds to our understanding of climate change. She discovered new methods in analyzing EEJ current system. Member of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences, the African Academy of Sciences and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), she has received the L'Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, the Woman of Merit Gold Award, the Great African Merit Award and the Award of Excellence, among others.
  • ZHOU, Zhonghe (China): (M) PhD, Director, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China; President of the International Paleontological Association. The nominee has published nearly 30 new species of Early Cretaceous birds, making China the most important area for the study of early avian evolution. He also led the study on the Jehol Biota, and proposed it as a cradle and diversification center for many biological groups. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, he has received the CAS Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize, the Science and Technology Award for Young Scientist of the Chinese Association of Sciences and Technology, among others.

08-Mathematical Sciences

  • CHEN Yongchuan (William) (China): (M) PhD, Director, Center for Combinatorics at Nankai University and Director, Center for Applied Mathematics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China. The nominee has made contributions to the combinatorics of trees, partitions and tableaux; found a connection between classical combinatorial theory and the quantum theory of angular momentum; proposed the approach of using context-free grammars to study combinatorial structures. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Award of the Chinese Mathematical Society, the Li Foundation Heritage Prize and the J.R. Oppenheimer Fellowship of Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, among others.
  • DAUBECHIES, Ingrid (Belgium/USA): (F) PhD, James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics, Mathematics Department, Duke University, Durham NC, USA. The nominee is a leader in applying mathematics to information science. She invented the Fast Wavelet Transform, representing digital signals by multiscale elements, used in data compression standards and in important signal processing tasks in remote sensing and medical imaging. She has developed sophisticated tools providing deep understanding of multi scale representations. Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Académie des Sciences, France and Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, Belgium, she has received the Gold Medal (Gouden Penning) of Belgium, the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award and Doctor honoris causa from five universities, among others.
  • YU, Jing (Taiwan, China): (M) PhD, Chair, Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, China. The nominee has made crucial contributions to transcendence theory for positive characteristic fields. He established strong linear independence on Drinfeld logarithms. Using t-motives, he has proved algebraic independence for special zeta values, and developed successful version of Grothendieck's program. Member of the Academia Sinica, he has received the Academic Award in Natural Science, the Academia Sinica National Outstanding Research Lectureship, among others.
  • YUAN, Yaxiang (China): (M) PhD, Professor, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The nominee has made outstanding contribution to numerical methods for nonlinear optimization, particularly to nonlinear conjugate gradient methods, trust region algorithms, quasi-Newton methods and subspace methods. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Corresponding Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he has received the TWAS Prize in Mathematics, the Shiing S. Chern Mathematics Award, the National Excellent Science and Technology Worker of China and the J.T. Knight Prize, Cambridge, UK, among others.

09-Physics

  • GOPAKUMAR, Rajesh (India): (M) PhD, Professor, HRI Allahabad; Senior Professor, ICTS-TIFR, Bangalore; International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru, India. The major theme of the nominee's work has been gauge-string duality: uncovering underlying structural reasons as well as discovering new tractable, solvable examples. Two very influential examples are on the topological string dual to Chern-Simons theory and on higher spin duals to (non-supersymmetric) 2d conformal field theories. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the TWAS Prize in Physical Sciences, the Abdus Salam ICTP Prize, the GD Birla Award for Scientific Research, among others.
  • LI, Shushen (China): (M) PhD, Director, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The nominee has pioneered the theoretical study of coupled semiconductor quantum dots and rings, discovered the decohercence mechanism of charge qubit in a vacuum, reveal the possibility of absorbing vertical incident light in quantum dots and developed quantum simulation for electron transport through quantum dots. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the National Natural Science Award twice and the Ho Leung Ho Lee (HLHL) prize for science and technology of China.
  • PANDIT, Rahul (India): (M) PhD, Professor and Chairman, Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Physics Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. The nominee has made important contributions to several challenging problems in turbulence, models for cardiac tissue, and the statistical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics of condensed-matter and complex systems. This includes comprehensive studies of the statistical properties of turbulence in fluids, plasmas, superfluids, fluids with particles, and fluids with polymers. Member of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy, he has received the JC Bose Fellowship of DST, the Professor Rustom Choksi Award, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award and the IIT Distinguished Alumni Award, among others.
  • SANYAL, Milan K. (India): (M) PhD, Professor, Saha Instiutte of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India. The nominee has made significant contributions in understanding of growth-mechanism and structure-property relationship of the nanomaterials that produce novel properties due to confinement-induced ordering. Particularly, he has done pioneering work in synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the CNR Rao Prize Lecture in Advanced Materials, the DAE-Raja Ramanna Lecture in Physics and the JC Bose Fellowship of DST, India, among others.
  • XIANG, Tao (China): (M) PhD, Professor, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The nominee has made seminal contributions to the development and application of density matrix and tensor renormalization group methods, and to the understanding of microscopic mechanism of interlayer dynamics of high temperature superconductors and magnetic interactions of ferropnictides. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), he has received the CAS Chi-Sun Yeh Prize for Condensed Matter Physics, the CAS Award of Distinguished Young Scholar, and the Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

10-Social and Economic Sciences

  • GINGRICH, Andre (Austria/USA): (M) DPhil, Full Professor, University of Vienna and Director, Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria. The nominee is a co-author of "One Discipline, Four Ways" (2005 UChicago Press) as a major advance in elaborating history of anthropology in UK/US/French/German, also translated into Spanish, Chinese etc. He is also an expert of stellar knowledge in the Arab world (as agricultural technique) with relevant publications on Yemen. Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, among others, he has received the Wittgenstein Award.
  • HONG, Yongmiao (China): (M) PhD, Chueng Kong Scholarship Professor of Economics, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China, and Ernest S. Liu Professor of Economics and International Studies, Department of Economics and Department of Statistical Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. The nominee has made fundamental contributions to economics, econometrics, finance and statistics. He developed a novel nonparametric specification test methodology for cross-section, time series, continuous-time financial models and proposed an innovative generalized spectrum for nonlinear time series. He has received the Nobel Laureate Tjalling C. Koopmans Econometric Theory Prize and the Award for Contributions by Oversea Chinese Talents by the Oversea Chinese Association, among other recognitions.
  • SHI, Yong (China): (M) PhD, Professor and Executive Deputy Director, Research Center on Fictitious Economy and Data Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The nominee is known for optimization-based data mining and business intelligence theory and techniques. His contribution to China's National Credit Scoring System (China Score) is impacting on every Chinese economic and social life. He has received the First Rank of Research Award by the Ministry of Education of China, the Green Group Award for Business Intelligence and Computational Finance, the Fudan Distinguished Management Prize, the Georg Cantor Award of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making, among others.