The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), one of the country’s top academic institutions, recently announced the annual list of prominent scientists who have been elected as CAS Members (Academicians). The list included 61 Chinese Members and 12 foreign Members.

Prof. Gao Rui, Research Fellow from the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), was elected as a CAS Member, together with the other 9 newly-elected Members for the Division of Earth Sciences of CAS.

Prof. Gao Rui graduated from the Department of Applied Geophysics, Changchun College of Geology in 1981, and has been working at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences(CAGS) ever since then. At present, he works as a Research Fellow at the Research Center on Lithosphere of the Institute of Geology, CAGS and the Director of the Key Laboratory of Earthprobe and Geodynamics under the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR). He has long been engaged in the research on geophysics and deep structures, using deep seismic reflection profiling to study the structure of continental lithosphere, structure and geodynamics, oil and gas, mineral resources and environmental effect.

His major academic achievements lie in his systemic and original work of the structure of continental lithosphere and tectonics and dynamics. He has discovered the seismic reflection structure which is located at the joints of the continental lithosphere of the Tarim Basin and the Western Kunlun Mountains, proposed and named a new type of face-to-face continental collision in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He has found the evidence that the very thick Qiangtang terrane is getting thinner and the reflected seismic of the Moho flattish surface, and thus revealed the subduction of the Indian Plate to the hinterland of Tibet plateau. He has discovered and proposed that the northern boundaries thrust (NBT) of the Qinghai-Tibet and Longriba thrust results from the restraint of the western margin of Yangtze craton to the northern and eastern crustal boundary in the western margin of the Yangtze craton from the deep crustal structure.

In addition to the above achievements, the deep seismic reflection profiling with the depth of over 7,000 km (the national total is 11,900 km) completed by Prof. Gao Rui and his team has made great contributions for China to become a major international player in the field of deep seismic reflection. “The data of the deep reflection are outstanding”, as reviewed by Science. The academicians in the chief review panel commented that Prof. Gao Rui had made great achievements in the relevant fields of deep seismic reflection profiling and deep structure, with a focus on the combination of seismic detection and geological structure, and had made original contributions with international influence to the research on continental lithosphere and the crustal structure as well as the cause of tectonic deformation in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and some other typical areas in China by using seismic detection.