China’s leading cartographic scientist Zhou Chenghu – the former deputy director of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – has been detained by anti-corruption authorities.According to a notice posted on Monday by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China’s top internal disciplinary and supervisory body, Zhou is under investigation by central and local anti-corruption bodies for “suspected serious violations of duty”. The notice did not reveal any details of the allegations.

In late May, the Economic Observer, a weekly Chinese newspaper, cited “informed sources” and said the 62-year-old CAS academician had been taken away by disciplinary inspectors from the lobby of his research institute building in late April.

His personal details have since been removed from the list of academicians on the official CAS website.

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Zhou’s primary research fields include spatial data mining, geographic systems modelling, hydrology and water resources, and the application of geographic information systems and remote sensing.

Born in 1964 in Nantong, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, Zhou was admitted to the department of geography at Nanjing University for undergraduate studies at the age of 16.