Recently, the Pakistan Academy of Sciences announced the list of new academicians, foreign academicians, and related awards for 2025. Prof. Tan Bien, Chinese supervisor of ICARE, has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences in recognition of his systematic innovative contributions and international academic influence in the field of materials chemistry.

Founded in 1953, the Pakistan Academy of Sciences is the highest academic institution in Pakistan. Its core functions are to promote science, technology, and innovation for socio-economic development, and to provide professional advice to the government in the fields of scientific and technological development and science education. The title of academician is the highest honor in Pakistan’s scientific community.

The Academy has strict selection rules: candidates must have made outstanding original scientific contributions. After nomination and multiple rounds of evaluation, they are elected by the General Assembly of Academicians. The total number of domestic academicians is capped at 100 (with no more than 5 elected annually), and foreign academicians at 30 (with no more than 3 elected annually). Up to now, only 35 scholars worldwide have received this honor.

In this election, three scholars were elected as foreign members. In addition to Prof. Bien Tan, the other new foreign members are Prof. Umer Ghishan Ejaz from the University of Glasgow, UK, and Prof. Munir Iqbal from the Pirbright Institute, UK.

The Pakistan Academy of Sciences has elected many world-leading scientists as foreign members, including Nobel laureate and Chinese-American physicist Prof. Samuel C.C. Ting, and chemist Prof. Chunli Bai, former President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Tan Bien is a Level-2 Professor and doctoral supervisor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He currently serves as Dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Executive Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Ministry of Education).

He is also a Chief Professor of the HUST Excellence Program, a Council Member of the Chinese Chemical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has been awarded the title of National Outstanding Young Expert with Outstanding Contributions.

In addition, he holds the positions of Vice Chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Hubei Provincial People’s Congress, and Member of the Standing Committee of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.

For many years, Prof. Tan has focused on major national demands in energy and the environment, conducting in-depth research in the synthesis and application of microporous polymers, energy gas storage, and CO₂ capture and conversion. He pioneered a novel, low-cost strategy for constructing microporous organic polymers and broke through key technical bottlenecks restricting the industrialization of related materials.

As of May 2025, he has published more than 280 papers in international journals including Chemical Society Reviews, Nature Communications, and Science Advances, among which 251 are indexed in SCI and 19 are ESI highly cited papers. He has authored 9 book chapters and has been granted 19 Chinese invention patents.

He has led 2 National Key R&D Programs and 7 General Programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His research achievements have been awarded the First Prize of the Hubei Natural Science Award twice, and he has received the China Overseas Chinese Contribution Award.