Three Qidong engineers made it into the second round of appraisal for membership of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, according to a list recently released by the CAE.

Of the 222 candidates who passed the first round of vetting, five engineers were from Nantong and three from Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, in eastern Jiangsu province.

The three Qidong nominees are Shi Jisen, Zhou Chuangbing and Shen Hongbing.

Shi Jisen is a professor of forest genetics and biotechnology and a doctoral supervisor working at Nanjing Forestry University. 

He was former president of Nanjing Forestry University and former director of the Key Laboratory of Forest Genetics and Biotechnology, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education.

Zhou Chuangbin is currently president of Nanchang University and is a rock mechanics expert. He is a chief scientist of the 973 Program and winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. 

Shen Hongbing is a medical professor and president of Nanjing Medical University. He was winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and the special government allowance of the State Council.

His research interest focuses on the molecular epidemiology of cancer. He has published over 400 papers that were included by the Science Citation Index). 

CAE is one of the country's top academic institutions and its membership is China's highest accolade in the field of engineering and a lifelong honor. New members are recruited every two years.

By the end of last year, the CAE has 862 Chinese academicians and 65 foreign academicians, according to China Science Daily.

With several rounds of appraisal, the academy plans to enroll up to 80 new members this year.