Peking University, January 21, 2021: During the online meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Council and all national representatives, Professor Lu Anhuai of PKU School of Earth and Space Sciences officially assumed the position of president of IMA. Previously, he was proposed to be the councilor of IMA Council at the 19th International Mineralogical General Meeting held in Kobe, Japan in 2006, and then was elected as the 1st vice president of IMA at the 22nd International Mineralogical General Meeting held in Melbourne, Australia in 2018. According to the constitution of the Council, the 1st vice president would be automatically promoted to the President after two years.

Lu Anhuai

Founded in 1958, IMA supports the activities of its council and working groups, and promotes the exchange of international mineralogists by hosting and organizing meetings. China has been a member of this international organization since the early 1980s. At present, IMA has included 39 national mineralogical societies or groups into its membership, and is now the largest and most authoritative international academic organization in the field of mineralogy.

Lu graduated from the Department of Geology of Peking University in 1984. In 1993, he received a Ph.D. degree in mineralogy from China University of Geosciences (Beijing). He made many outstanding contributions in the field of mineralogy, including establishing the Cr-Al mica subgroup, promoting environmental mineralogy research projects, and exploring the principle of natural self-purification of inorganic minerals. He also found that the surface "mineral membrane" can convert solar energy into chemical energy and biomass energy, proposed that photo electrons generated by minerals can stimulate the non-phototrophic microorganism metabolism, and made breakthroughs in the research of the accumulation of prebiotic biomolecules. He previously published a special issue as the first guest editor in Elements, an internationally famous SCI journal. His research results have been published in PNAS, Nature Communication, Science Advances, and other well-known journals, and have made significant impact on the international mineralogical society.

Source: PKU News (Chinese)