Researchers talk about scientific data at an office of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 19, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's two elite science and technology institutes on Thursday published their lists of candidates for the biennial selection of new academicians, the highest academic title in the country.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has 583 candidates for the title, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering has 655. Candidates are listed in their fields of study, which cover various subjects from space technologies to geology, and from medical and life sciences to agriculture and petrochemicals.

Notably, Yan Ning, a renowned structural biologist who works at Tsinghua University's School of Life Sciences, and Shi Zhengli, a virologist at the CAS Wuhan Institute of Virology, are on the list.

Yan, 45, whose name is also written as Nieng Yan in professional circles, has been a scientist on the rise in recent years after she left Tsinghua in 2017 to become a professor at Princeton University in the United States where she received her PhD, and returned last year to Tsinghua while helping build the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation.

Yan Ning [Photo/CFP]

She was the youngest professor and PhD adviser at Tsinghua, one of the top universities in China. While at Princeton, Yan was elected as the US National Academy of Sciences Foreign Associate in 2019 for her outstanding contribution to biological sciences.

Shi, 58, has long been engaged in pathological studies of emerging viruses, including those involving viruses circulating in wild animals, and studies in molecular epidemiology. She is now a leading virologist at the Wuhan institute and heads a team on the study of new infectious diseases there.

Among the candidates, the youngest is Chang Chao, 39, who conducts research on biophysics using cutting-edge terahertz technologies, an emerging field focusing on the terahertz wavelength that poses significant potential in various sectors that one day could affect people's daily lives.

This year, the CAS will select 79 new academicians from various fields of study and the CAE will select no more than 90. In all, only one in every seven or eight candidates will eventually be awarded the title.

The two academies announced the start of the selection process in May. Candidates may be nominated by existing academicians or recommended by academic societies.

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