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The U.S. National Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
The election was held this morning during the business session of the 144th annual meeting of the academy, and brought the organization's total number of active members to 2,025.
Foreign associates are non-voting members of the academy. The 18 newly elected, from 12 different countries, brought the total number of foreign associates to 387.
Two Chinese scientists, Zhang Qifa and Li Aizhen, were among the new foreign associates.
Professor Zhang is the director of National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, in central China's Wuhan.
Li is from the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the advance of science and its use for the general welfare.
It was established in 1863 by a congressional act signed by Abraham Lincoln. The act calls on the academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology