On 17th February, 2016, good news came from the Academy of Esperanto that Professor Liu Haitao, 9211 Navigating Professor of NIT, was appointed as a new member. On the very day, the Academy of Esperanto (AE) announced eighteen new members - seven of which were newly elected.

The Academy of Esperanto is an independent body of language scholars who steward the evolution of the language Esperanto by keeping it consistent with the fundamental principles thereof. The body consists of 45 members, and has a president, vice-presidents and a secretary. Members are elected by their peers for a period of nine years, elections being held every three years for a third of the members. The finance is covered by a subsidy from the World Esperanto Association and by donations.
Professor Liu taught himself Esperanto twenty years ago in order to devote himself to the study of language. He and his team are currently engaged in the quantitative and complex network research in human languages. The aim of their research is to understand, through interdisciplinary efforts, the structure and evolution of languages from the perspective of complex system, which may open up new horizons for linguistics.
It is said that Liu is the third Chinese member of the AE, and the former two are Li Shijun and Xie Yuming, who were elected respectively in 1983 and 1986.