Academician Gengdong Cheng was recently elected as a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

Cheng received his B.S. in Solid Mechanics from the Peking University Department of Mathematical and Theoretical Mechanics in 1964. He has since focused on his research in engineering mechanics, computational mechanics, and structural optimization and design. Cheng has also published 160 papers and authored and translated five books.  He has published 160 papers, authored and translated five books. His work in elastic sheet optimization, structural shape optimization, topology optimization and sensitivity analysis is well recognized by the international academic community.

Cheng was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995 and served as president of Dalian University of Technology from 1995 to 2005. In January 2012, he became a member of the Academic Committee of the State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems at Peking University.

RAS is the principal professional body for sciences in Russia. There are three types of membership in the RAS: full members (academicians), corresponding members and foreign members. Members of RAS are elected based on their scientific contributions and election to membership is considered very prestigious. There are only18 Chinese citizens elected as RAS foreign members.