International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Naisheng LI

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2016, Professor Naisheng Li is a distinguished Chinese marine geologist whose research and professional work have focused on marine geology, marine geophysics, and deep-sea exploration. Born in July 1957 in Shouguang, Shandong Province, he received his B.S. from Shandong College of Oceanography (now Ocean University of China) in 1982 and his M.S. from the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in 1985. He pursued doctoral studies at Texas A&M University, USA, in 1993 before returning to the Institute of Oceanology, CAS, where he subsequently became Research Professor and Doctoral Supervisor. From 1999 onward, he held a series of senior science and technology administration positions, including Deputy Director-General of the Shandong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, President of the Shandong Marine Engineering Research Institute, and Director of the Qingdao National Marine Science Research Center. He currently serves as President of the Qingdao Association for Senior Scientists and Technologists, Vice Chairman of the Expert Committee of the China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, and Chairman of the Marine Professional Committee. His honours include the CAS Young Scientist Award (1991), the First China Youth Scientist Award (1993), and selection as a national-level candidate of the first batch of the Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talent Project in 1995.

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Professor Li’s research has focused on marine geology and geophysics, with particular emphasis on submarine exploration engineering, the tectonic evolution of marginal seas, and marine geothermal investigations. Through more than ten research voyages in the Okinawa Trough, he conducted marine geological and geophysical surveys of the Northwest Pacific marginal sea system and China’s adjacent waters, contributing to the understanding of the tectonic characteristics of the trench–island arc–back-arc basin system. In 1995, he proposed an East China Sea delimitation scheme based on the central rift axis of the Okinawa Trough, which provided scientific material for China’s subsequent submission to the United Nations. He also led the first seabed heat-flow measurements on the East China Sea continental shelf and participated in investigations that identified dense hydrothermal vents and submarine “black smokers” in the Okinawa Trough, contributing to the assessment of the region’s hydrothermal sulphide mineral resources. He has completed twelve large-scale marine survey research reports, authored or co-authored more than sixteen monographs, including Geology of the Northwest Pacific Marginal Seas, Geothermal Studies of the Okinawa Trough, and Geological and Geophysical Characteristics and Evolution of China’s Marginal Seas, and published more than seventy scientific papers and ninety strategic research articles. Through sustained research, leadership of national marine research programmes, and international scientific collaboration, Professor Li has contributed to connecting marine geological and geophysical research with applications in marine resource assessment, oceanographic exploration, and the scientific study of China’s marginal seas.