The 28th General Conference of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) opened on November 27, 2018, in Trieste, Italy. Academician Zhang Tao from our laboratory was elected as an academician of TWAS. Zhang Tao has long been engaged in research in the field of industrial catalytic materials. The novel catalysts he developed have been widely used in China's petrochemical industry and other fields. He has received multiple awards including the National Technology Invention Award, the CAS Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize. His recent research focuses on catalytic decomposition technology for non-toxic propellants, biomass catalytic conversion, single-atom catalysis, and nanocatalysis. He first discovered the new reaction of one-step catalytic conversion of cellulose to ethylene glycol, opening a new route for biomass conversion. He also pioneered the concept of "Single-Atom Catalysis". Zhang Tao has published over 500 papers in international journals and applied for more than 150 invention patents.
The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), originally named the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), was initiated by Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam. Established in 1983, it is an autonomous international scientific organization headquartered in Trieste, Italy. TWAS academicians are elected from distinguished scientists in developing countries, while foreign associates are selected from renowned scientists in developed countries. Candidates should generally be academicians of their national academies (if such systems exist) and have made outstanding contributions to scientific development in developing countries. To date, TWAS has 1,221 academicians from over 100 countries and regions, working across 10 fields: mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, earth sciences, biology, agricultural sciences, medical sciences, engineering sciences, and social and economic sciences. In 2018, 46 new academicians were elected, including 14 scientists from mainland China.
Academicians Zhang Cunhao, Li Can, and Bao Xinhe from our institute were elected as TWAS academicians in 1992, 2005, and 2011 respectively.
