The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) announced that Prof. WANG Yifang, Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics, was elected a foreign member of the RAS in late October.

In the announcement,the achievements of Prof. WANG in physics and in collaboration with Russia and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) were marked by the Russian Academy of Sciences and we sincerely congratulate him on being elected as a foreign member of the RAS.

The most prominent foreign scientists recognized by the international scientific community can be elected Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Foreign RAS Members are elected by the RAS General Assembly.

WANG Yifang studied for his PhD in particle physics under the renowned physicist Prof. Samuel Chao Chung Ting.After he went back to China in 2001, WANG led the design and construction of the BESIII detector at the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider, and the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment to precisely measure the neutrino mixing angle theta13. He proposed the idea of theCircular Electron-Positron Collider (CEPC) followed by a proton collider (SPPC) as a possible future particle physics detector. He has been awarded the W. K. H. Panofsky Prize, the 20th Nikkei Asia Prize, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) was originally founded in Saint Petersburg in 1774 and was reconstituted as the Russian Academy of Sciences on November 21, 1991 by a decree of the President of the Russian Federation that also confirmed its status as the highest scientific institution in Russia. The traditions and scientific schools established and further developed by the Academy, as well as the world excellence of its research in basic and applied science naturally have added to its reputation as the top scientific institution in the country.

Since 1949, about a dozen Chinese scientists have been elected RAS foreign members, including former CAS Presidents Prof. GUO Moruo and Prof. LU Yongxiang, current CAS President Prof. BAI Chunli, and Chinese-origin scientists Prof. Samuel Chao Chung Ting, Prof. Chen-Ning Yang, and Prof. Yau Shing-Tung.

Prof.WANG Yifang (Image by CHEN Wen/CNS)