Simon White elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences

December 22, 2015

At its biennial Membership Election Meeting in November 2015, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) elected MPA director, Simon White, as a Foreign Member in recognition of his scientific achievements and his contributions to promoting the development of science and technology in China.

Chinese astronomy long predates the modern era, as can be seen from this Ming Dynasty armillary sphere, but its modern form has developed dramatically over the last quarter century following extended stays by many of its scientists in the West

© Marilyn Shea, 2004

Chinese astronomy long predates the modern era, as can be seen from this Ming Dynasty armillary sphere, but its modern form has developed dramatically over the last quarter century following extended stays by many of its scientists in the West

© Marilyn Shea, 2004

The CAS is a national scientific institution comprising three major parts - a comprehensive research and development network made up of many individual institutes, a traditional merit-based academic society similar to the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S., the Royal Society in Britain or the Leopoldina in Germany, and a system of higher education consisting of three universities. The merit-based part of CAS (which it calls its Academic Divisions) was founded in 1955 and serves as an advanced national think-tank to the Chinese Government on major science and technology issues.

It currently has 777 Members and 82 Foreign Members. With his election, Simon White becomes the only astrophysicist among the Foreign Members and the third scientist working in Germany (following Klaus von Klitzing and Hartmut Michel). At the age of 64 he also joins a society where he is still in the lower quartile by age!

Simon White will be formally admitted to the CAS at its 18th General Assembly in June 2016, along with former MPA-postdoc Yipeng Jing, currently Distinguished Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who was also elected in November 2015.