BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- One of China's top chemists, Bai Chunli, becomes the first Chinese scientist honored by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) of the United Kingdom for his innovative research on chemistry.

    Richard Pike, RSC chief executive officer, granted the certificates of the honorary fellow of the RSC to Bai in Beijing, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) website reported on Friday.

    Bai is among the 87 global academic celebrities, including a handful of Nobel laureates in chemistry, to earn the extraordinary honor. The RSC constitution stipulates the total number of honorary fellows should be no more than 120 and they must undergo a rigorous nomination and election process.

    The 54-year-old chemist, deputy CAS president and president of the Chinese Chemical Society, is leading the most cutting-edge research on molecular nanostructure and nanotechnology in China, which earned him election in April 2006 as the elite foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

    Bai studied as a postdoctorate at the California Institute of Technology from 1985 to 1987, and previously focused on the structure and properties of polymer catalysts and molecular mechanics, which are core and original studies in physical chemistry.

    In the mid 1980s, Bai shifted his academic interest to scanning tunnelling microscopy and molecular nanotechnology, which are expected to lay the theoretical basis for developing revolutionary materials in the nanometer scale.

    Bai has netted almost all major national science awards and was named an RSC fellow in 2006.

    As chief scientist for a national steering committee of nanasicence and related technologies, Bai masterminds research strategies for China in the field.

    The RSC, which groups more than 44,000 members from diverse areas of the chemical sciences worldwide, is the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences.