Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

AN international team headed by Robert H. Grubbs, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, has begun scientific research at the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute, which was officially inaugurated at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) yesterday.

The institute, the first of its kind in China to be named after a Nobel laureate, is set to be a world-leading research center in new pharmaceuticals, new materials, clean energy and chemical processes through 8-10 years of development.

The research team is comprised of six academics from the National Academy of Sciences, the United States, a dozen well-known professors from U.S. universities and academics, scholars and experts working at SUSTech. It will be managed by SUSTech and directed by a board of directors.

Grubbs, a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology and co-recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on olefin metathesis, will be dean of the institute. He will work for one to three months at the institute every year.

The focus of the institute will be catalysts, which are very important in many fields such as the petroleum, chemical, new materials and new energy industries.

At the inauguration ceremony yesterday, the Nobel laureate expressed his hope that the institute will attract more top talents and produce world-leading scientific achievements.

Chen Shiyi, president of SUSTech, said the inauguration of the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute marked a big step for SUSTech in promoting the integration of higher learning, research and industry.

He hopes that the institute will help promote the development of chemistry in Guangdong and in China.