CHEN SHIYI, former vice president of Peking University, has been appointed to head the South University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTC) in Shenzhen, the university announced Wednesday.

    Chen, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the university’s second president. His appointment came four months after his predecessor, Zhu Qingshi, left the office in September last year.

    With a solid academic background in science and 18 years of academic and work experience in the United States, Chen has set his sights on forging SUSTC into an internationalized, diversified and innovative tertiary education institute with a strong foundation of exceptional instructors and professors.

    “SUSTC is anticipated by the whole nation to reform the current higher education system. We are playing a leading role in exploring a path towards a more creative tertiary education in China, which is also the driving force for me to be here,” Chen told a press conference Wednesday.

    Shenzhen Party Chief Wang Rong also expressed his anticipation for SUSTC’s new leader. He praised the efforts SUSTC has made and the remarkable accomplishments in the last five years since the establishment of the university.

    “With president Chen’s lead, SUSTC will definitely reach new heights in all aspects,” said Wang.

    Chen, born in 1956 in Tiantai County in Zhejiang Province, graduated from Zhejiang University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanics in 1982. He continued his studies at Peking University for both a master’s and doctorate degree between 1982 and 1987. Then he studied and worked in Los Alamos National Laboratory for 12 years.

    Chen became dean of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in the United States in 2002 and returned to China in 2005 to become director of the Center for Computational Science & Engineering at Peking University. He was made vice president of Peking University in 2013.

    SUSTC started its trial operation in 2009 and was officially approved by the Ministry of Education in April in 2012. Instead of having a president assigned by the Central Government or local authorities, SUSTC has a 20-member board of directors that does its policy-making.

    (Zhang Qian)