In the latest release of CAS academician name list, Prof. Lonnie Thompson, vice Chairman of the ITP’s academic advisory board and world-acknowledged glaciologist, was among one of the six newly elected foreign members.

Born in July, 1948, Prof. Thompson got his doctor’s degree in 1976 from the Department of Geology, the Ohio State University (OSU). Since then, he has been long involved in the study of alpine glaciers from the mi- and low-latitudes, trying to recover the paleoclimate history from ice core record. He, together with his team at the Byrd Polar Research Center, has expedited to almost all tropical and sub-tropical alpine glaciated areas as the Mt Andrus, Peru, Kilimanjaro, Africa and various high mountains in Tibet, China, to retrieve ice cores and reconstruct thereupon paleoclimate. He urged for the awareness of severe global warming and measures to mitigate the bad effect, or timely adapt to changes. His academic achievement and enduring spirit has gained international acknowledgement and colleagues’ respect. In 2005, he was nominated member of the US National Academy of Science and in 2007 awarded by the then US President George W. Bush the National Medal of Science.

Since his initial cooperation with Chinese scientists in 1984, he has always tried to visit China annually, not only for site exploration on the Tibetan Plateau, but also for academic note exchanges and talents cultivation. Ever at the founding of the ITP, he was recommended by his long-term cooperator Prof. Tandong Yao and nominated as Vice Chairman in the ITP’s Academic advisory board, offering suggestions on direction of efforts for the ITP’s further development.