(XINHUA)

Bai Chunli, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was elected to become one of the 10 new foreign members of the United Kingdom's Royal Society on May 1. Foreign members are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of their excellence in the sciences. There are currently around 140 foreign members.

In a Royal Society statement, Bai, born in September 1953, was described as one of the pioneers in the field of nanoscience and as having outstanding scientific achievements as well as a leadership role in China's scientific community.