On Oct 31st 2023, the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) elected 47 new fellows. Among them are CAS Members TANG Tao, CHI Lifeng, MA Guanghui, YAN Xiyun, and HUANG Jianpin. This addition elevates the total TWAS membership to over 1,400.

CAS Member TANG Tao specializes in computational mathematics, with outstanding academic contributions in the areas of high-order methods and adaptive grid methods. TANG was awarded the Feng Kang Prize for Scientific Computing, First Prize in Natural Science by Ministry of Education, and Second Prize in the National Natural Science Award. He has served a variety of important academic roles including the president of the Hong Kong Mathematical Society.

CAS Member CHI Lifeng’s work focuses on on-surface reactions, molecular self-assembly, and interfacial molecular patterning. She has made groundbreaking contributions to on-surface chemistry by activating the inert C-H bonds of n-alkane using anisotropic surfaces and triggering polymerization under mild conditions. This concept provides a new approach to selective C-H activation and C-C coupling. CHI has also discovered new pathways for synthesizing well-defined molecular nanostructures. Moreover, she obtained ordered molecular assemblies over wafer-size. CHI has published over 450 research articles as the first or corresponding author in top-tier journals including Nature and Science, with more than 130,000 citations.

CAS Member MA Guanghui has devoted herself into the research of size-controllable, structure-controllable and surface-controllable biocompatible microspheres, enabling the successful production of uniform biocompatible microspheres for cell culture, chromatography, drug delivery and vaccine formulations by companies and institutions worldwide. She has published over 400 papers in top-tier international journals including Nature Materials, Science Translational Medicine, and Nature Nanotechnology.

CAS Member YAN Xiyun has long been focusing on the frontier inter-disciplinary studies, integrating tumor immunology with nanotechnology. She discovered the intrinsic enzyme-like properties of inorganic nanomaterials and proposed the concept of nanozymes. She established the method for studying nanozymes and developed the first commercial nanozyme products for detecting Ebola, COVID-19 and tumors. YAN’s outstanding contributions in tumor biology include her discovery of CD146. Based on the systematic studies of CD146, she developed targeted therapies, antibodies, test kits, and relevant equipment for a series of tumors including melanoma, glioma, and pancreatic cancer.

CAS Member HUANG Jianping’s research focuses on the mechanisms of semi-arid climate change and prediction. HUANG proposed a thermodynamic mechanism for enhanced warming, as well as a land-atmosphere feedback mechanism for expansion in semi-arid regions. He has achieved systematic innovative results regarding the mechanism of world semi-arid climate change, the physical mechanism of sand-dust aerosols affecting semi-arid climate change, and long-term numerical forecasting methods. HUANG has published over 295 papers in SCI-indexed journals, which have been cited over 17,000 times, with H-index being 70. He has received the Second Prize (Top 1 in this category) of National Natural Science Award of China.

The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) was originally named the Third World Academy of Sciences. Founded in Nov 10th, 1983, it aims to support and promote the scientific research development in developing countries. (Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)