MINSK, 16 November (BelTA) – Six foreign and two honorary members of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) were elected at a session of the NASB General Meeting, BelTA has learned.
The six new NASB foreign members are: Bai Chunli, President of China's Academy of Sciences, a world-class scientist in the fields of nanotechnology and scanning probe microscopy; Fidel Angel Castro Diaz-Balart, Vice President of Cuba's Academy of Sciences, scientific advisor to Cuba's Council of State, a big name in theoretical, nuclear physics and energy, quantum theory, and nanotechnology; Baiba Rivza, President of the Latvian Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, a prominent specialist in economics, agricultural business, risks, regional development, and market research; Alexander Sergeyev, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), RAS member, a notable scientist in the fields of laser physics, high-power femtosecond laser systems, nonlinear wave theory, plasma physics, and biophotonics; Steven Chu, professor of physics, molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University, a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 for the "development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light"; Henry Markram, professor of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, director of the Human Brain Project, an outstanding neurophysiologist.
The two new NASB honorary members are Piotr Klimuk, pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Doctor of Engineering Science, professor, member of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and Yusuf Khwaja Hamied, Chairman of the Board of Cipla Ltd., one of India's leading scientists in the field of organic chemistry and pharmaceutics.
The session of the NASB General Meeting was held on 16 November. It gathered over 500 representatives of academic and sectoral institutions, universities, government bodies, members of the NASB presidium, top officials, and leading Belarusian scientists. The elections of academicians, corresponding members, and foreign members of the NASB were on the agenda.
