From April 24 to 25, the Chinese Petroleum Society (CPS) held the 2025 (Second) Fellowship Conferment Ceremony in Beijing, alongside the 3rd National Conference on Key Technologies and Equipment for Deep and Ultra-Deep Oil & Gas Exploration and Development. Liu Qingyou, Party Secretary of Chengdu University of Technology (CDUT), and Xu Fengyin, Distinguished Dean of the College of Modern Shale Gas Industry, were both awarded the prestigious title of Fellow of the CPS. The opening ceremony and conferment were presided over by Li Junjun, Vice President and Secretary General of the CPS.
Li Junjun presiding over the conferment ceremony
Prominent attendees included Jiao Fangzheng, President of the Chinese Petroleum Society; Yan Hongtao, Party Leadership Group Member, Vice General Manager and Executive Director of CNOOC Limited; Yang Liqiang, Deputy Chief Engineer of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Executive Director and Party Secretary of China Petroleum Technical Service Corporation Limited; and Guo Hongjin, Vice President of Sinopec and General Manager of its Petroleum Exploration & Development Department. The conference also invited some distinguished academicians, including Jia Chengzao, Gao Deli, Peng Ping’an, Jin Zhijun, and Xiao Wenjiao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as Sun Jinsheng and Li Ning from the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
The 2025 (Second) Fellowship Conferment Ceremony of the CPS
At the ceremony, Li Junjun announced the official decision to award the 2025 Fellows, followed by Jiao Fangzheng presenting certificates to new fellows, including Liu Qingyou and Xu Fengyin, with sincere congratulations. The atmosphere was celebratory and dignified.
Jiao Fangzheng presenting fellowship certificate to Liu Qingyou
Jiao Fangzheng presenting fellowship certificate to Xu Fengyin
The Fellow title is the highest academic honor granted to members of the CPS and represents a lifetime achievement. According to the Society’s regulations, fellows are selected biennially. The 2025 cohort is the second group, with a total of 33 individuals receiving the title, including 13 academicians and 20 leading industry experts selected through a rigorous review and public nomination process. To date, the Society has named 72 fellows (42 academicians and 30 industry experts), spanning all major disciplines within the petroleum and petrochemical sector. The CPS emphasized that it will leverage the fellows as a high-level think tank, actively engaging them in policy advice, strategic consultation, and scientific services to promote the high-quality development of the industry.
List of All Fellows of the CPS
The Society called on its members and all petroleum science and technology professionals to look up to the Fellows as role models, and to face scientific frontiers and national priorities with courage, perseverance, and a spirit of innovation. They are encouraged to face problems head-on, strive relentlessly, and shoulder the responsibilities of the times, making greater contributions toward building China into a global science and technology powerhouse and advancing national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization. Liu Qingyou and Xu Fengyin both expressed their gratitude for the honor and pledged to continue striving for excellence and innovation in their fields.
Over 550 representatives from major companies such as CNPC, Sinopec, and CNOOC, as well as numerous universities, attended the ceremony and the accompanying technical exchange conference.
Panoramic View of the Conference
[Profiles]
Liu Qingyou, male, Han ethnicity, was born October 1965 in Kaixian, Chongqing. He is a Fellow of the CPS, professor, doctoral supervisor, and Party Secretary of CDUT. He serves as a member of the 8th Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Education, Chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Advisory Committee for Instrumentation and Mechanics Programs, and Vice President of both the Sichuan Petroleum Society and Sichuan Mechanical Engineering Society. He was twice shortlisted for the second round of academician selection (2017 and 2019), and became an effective candidate in 2023 (Division of Energy and Mining Engineering).
A renowned expert in petroleum drilling and production equipment, Liu has spent 39 years researching dynamic system theory and core equipment for deep/ultra-deep, deepwater/ultra-deepwater, and unconventional oil and gas exploration (“two deeps and one unconventional”). The supply of oil and gas resources is vital to China’s energy security, and these “two deeps and one unconventional” sectors are key focus areas for increasing domestic production. However, long-standing bottlenecks, such as low efficiency in deep drilling equipment, high safety risks in deepwater operations, and a lack of specialized tools for unconventional resources, have hindered progress, with core technologies still heavily reliant on foreign sources. As the saying goes, “To do a good job, one must first sharpen their tools.” Mastering independent capabilities in drilling equipment theory, design, and industrialization is not only a cutting-edge frontier in global engineering but also a strategic national priority for China.
Over nearly four decades, Liu has built a stable and interdisciplinary research team and led 19 national-level projects, including National Natural Science Foundation major instrumentation development, key R&D programs, national science and technology major projects, and the 973 Program, as well as 23 provincial and ministerial projects. He established a comprehensive theoretical and technical system for the dynamic, multi-factor design of drilling equipment. His innovations include high-performance roller cone bits, customized polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits, the blowout preventer control system for the offshore platform “Hai Yang Shi You 981,” a heave compensation device for offshore drilling, drilling rigs for extreme cold environments, and ultra-high-pressure, high-power fracturing pumps. These breakthroughs have helped China transition from merely following and keeping pace to leading in certain areas of core drilling technology, significantly contributing to the efficient development of the “two deeps and one unconventional” sectors.
Liu has received numerous prestigious awards, including one Special Prize and two Second Prizes for Scientific and Technological Progress, and one Second Prize for National Teaching Achievement. He has also won eight first prizes at the provincial and ministerial levels. He has been recognized as a “Changjiang Scholar” Distinguished Professor and a leading talent in the first cohort of the national “Ten Thousand Talents Plan.” His accolades also include the inaugural National Award for Excellence in Innovation, the Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Progress Award, and national-level recognition in the New Century National Talent Project. Liu receives a special allowance from the State Council and has been named a National Excellent Science and Technology Worker. He holds 70 authorized invention patents (including 9 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada), has published 125 academic papers as first or corresponding author, authored 6 monographs, formulated 2 technical standards, and registered 8 software copyrights.
Xu Fengyin, male, Han ethnicity, was born in April 1964 in Jia County, Shaanxi Province. He is a Fellow of the CPS, Ph.D., professor, and doctoral advisor. He currently serves as the Distinguished Dean of the Shale Gas Modern Industry College at CDUT. He is also a review expert for national science and talent awards, expert advisor for national coalbed methane (CBM) standards under the National Coal Standardization Committee, and a review expert for China’s major national science and technology projects on unconventional oil and gas exploration and development. Xu also sits on several national committees, including the National Technical Committee on Natural Gas Standardization and the National Technical Committee for Oil and Gas Geological Exploration Standards. He previously held roles as full-time Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the CPS and as a Senior CBM Expert (Top Tier) and Scientific Committee Member at CNPC. Xu has been a senior visiting scholar at Stanford University and holds an EMBA from the University of Houston. He is a committee member of Top China, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Acta Petrolei Sinica, and editorial board member of Petroleum Knowledge, Coal Geology & Exploration, and China Petroleum Exploration.
Xu earned his Ph.D. in mine geology from China University of Mining and Technology in 1993, becoming the first doctoral graduate in the field in China. At age 30 in 1994, he was exceptionally promoted to professor and won the 3rd Sun Yueqi Youth Science and Technology Award. In 1995, he completed postdoctoral research at Southwest Petroleum University and was named a “Cross-Century Academic and Technological Leader” by the CNPC. He has led over 40 research projects, including major national scientific and technological initiatives, published more than 140 papers, authored 9 monographs, won 12 national and ministerial-level awards, and led the drafting of two international standards. In 2024, he ranked in the top 1% of highly cited scholars on CNKI, with 13 high-impact papers, 3 of which were named among the “Top Articles from Outstanding S&T Journals of China (F5000).” One of his papers was ranked No. 1 in the “Top 10 Scientific Papers in China Petroleum Science 2023.” Over the past three years, he has delivered 16 motivational lectures to university students and organized or chaired 88 major domestic and international academic conferences. He has also served as a guest editor and keynote speaker for 12 special issues in leading journals such as Acta Petrolei Sinica, Journal of China Coal Society, Coal Geology & Exploration, and Coal Science and Technology. In 2024, Xu was selected as one of ten scientists by the China Association for Science and Technology to deliver a nationwide online lecture on the spirit of scientists, receiving high praise.
With 45 years of experience in coalfield, oil and gas, and mine geology, Xu has developed a complete theoretical and technical system for quantitative prediction and evaluation of mine geological structures, which is internationally leading. He led the development of several breakthrough technologies, including deep CBM volume acid fracturing, successfully solving the global challenge of profitable extraction of CBM at depths greater than 2,000 meters. Xu has proposed several strategic frameworks for the CBM industry, such as the “Five-in-One Collaborative Innovation,” the “30 Billion Cubic Meters in Two Steps over 10 Years,” the “Deep CBM Revolution,” and the “Eight Integrated Upgrades for Full Industrial Advancement,” steering China’s CBM sector into its best development phase in history. His work has been featured by People’s Daily, Worker’s Daily, China Youth Daily, Top China, Xuexi Qiangguo, China Development, Toutiao, and other media outlets. He has made outstanding contributions to advancing the theory, technology, and industrial development of CBM, especially deep CBM, and enjoys broad influence across the coal, geology, petroleum, natural gas industries and academia.
