Source: Office of Talent Development, Publicity Department
Written by: Office of Talent Development, Publicity Department
Photo by: Li Jinfeng, Xiao Yao, Cai Zhishan
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On December 21-23, 2018, the Seventh International Young Scholars Forum and the 2018 International Young Scholars Shenzhen Forum of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) was held in Shenzhen. Through the plenary meeting, visit to the exhibition “Great Tides Surge along the Pearl River——40 Years of Reform and Opening-up in Guangdong”, parallel sessions and sub-forums, the Forum brought together outstanding young scholars from home and abroad to focus on academic frontiers, and contribute their wisdom to building SYSU into a world-class university and serving the local economic and social development.

SYSU held the plenary meeting of the Seventh International Young Scholars Forum

The plenary meeting was held on the morning of December 22. Mr. Wang Lixin, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen; Professor Chen Chunsheng, Secretary of SYSU Party Committee; Academician Luo Jun, President of SYSU; Professor Wang Xuehua, Vice President of SYSU; Professor Lan Ping, Vice President of SYSU; young scholars from home and abroad, professors and doctors of SYSU’s schools, departments and affiliated hospitals, as well as leaders of relevant bureaus of Shenzhen City, Futian District and Guangming District attended the meeting.

Secretary Chen Chunsheng presided over the plenary meeting and delivered a welcome speech

At the meeting, Secretary Chen Chunsheng extended a warm welcome to the young scholars from around the globe, and expressed gratitude to Shenzhen City for its support for SYSU in recent years. He said that SYSU and Shenzhen Municipal Government are planning and constructing Shenzhen Campus according to the standard of a world-class university. It is expected to be put into use in 2020. Through joint efforts of the University and the City, the construction of Shenzhen Campus is going smoothly, and remarkable results have been achieved in school construction, talent introduction, talent cultivation, scientific research, campus construction and funding support. In the next ten years, SYSU will continuously promote the campus construction in an all-round way through coordinated efforts in strategic planning, disciplinary layout, high-level talent introduction and funding input.

President Luo Jun delivered a keynote report——Dedicated to building a high-level, high-quality, world-class campus

President Luo Jun delivered a keynote report entitled “Gather Talents to Realize Dreams and Build Word-Class University Together”, in which he introduced SYSU’s recent developments, the planning and construction of Shenzhen Campus, as well as talent recruitment at SYSU.

President Luo Jun pointed out that SYSU has been striving forward and making progress with the support of the Ministry of Education and local governments. In recent years the University has set the goal of building a world-class university with Chinese characteristics, persisted in reform and opening-up, insisted on perfecting educational and disciplinary layouts with five campuses in the three cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen as well as ten affiliated hospitals. The University has achieved rapid development, its educational indices have doubled in three years, its place has kept a momentum of steady increase in major international university ranking systems, and the University has entered a new era of development.

President Luo Jun stressed that as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, SYSU has new positioning, new layout and new idea for its development. SYSU’s 13th Congress of Party Representatives has set the overall goal of the University, which is to accelerate its advancement into the first tier of universities nationwide and forge ahead to enter the forefront of world-class universities, all while remaining firmly rooted in China. In the next three years, with the premise of ensuring campus security and stability, SYSU will realize a redoubling of educational indices and strive to stay in the first tier of universities nationwide; by 2021 to be among the Chinese universities which are ranked world-class; and to achieve notable progress in the ranking during the first round evaluation of the “Double First-Class” construction.

President Luo Jun specially introduced the campus positioning, disciplinary layout, talent cultivation, research platforms and campus construction of Shenzhen Campus. In 2015, SYSU and Shenzhen Municipal Government signed the cooperation agreement to jointly build Shenzhen Campus as one of SYSU’s main campuses. Shenzhen Campus will serve major national strategies, give emphasis to the integrated nurturing of young elites in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. Focusing on medical sciences and engineering, Shenzhen Campus will develop a relatively comprehensive disciplinary system including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medical sciences and engineering. It will have a complete talent cultivation system from undergraduate programs to doctoral programs, thus becoming a world-class university campus with comprehensive disciplinary advantages.

At the end of his report, President Luo Jun sent warm invitations to outstanding young scholars present at the Forum, saying that the University will provide competitive salaries, comfortable offices and apartments, excellent enrollment conditions for their children, high-quality medical services, broad space and smooth channels for talent development. With favorable policies from local governments, various kinds of talented professionals can join SYSU and realize their ambitions and dreams, work together to create a first-class cause, and witness the new glories of SYSU together!

Representatives of the school deans and professors from Zhuhai Campus and Shenzhen Campus also presented speeches at the meeting. Professor Wang Dongxiao, Dean of the School of Marine Sciences, introduced the construction of large marine sciences discipline clusters in the University; Professor Wu Zhigang, Dean of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, introduced the faculty development and laboratory construction; Professor Shu Yuelong, Dean of the School of Public Health (Shenzhen), introduced the disciplinary development plan, vision and mission of the school; Professor Lin Weipeng, Dean of the School of Physics and Astronomy, specially introduced the construction progress of big research platforms; and Professor Chen Jianhong, Head of the Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), introduced the disciplinary development on Zhuhai Campus as well as the development outlook of the department.
During the Shenzhen Forum, the schools, departments and affiliated hospitals held sub-forums and various kinds of academic seminars.

SYSU is striving to provide talent, scientific, technological and intellectual support for Guangdong’s implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Nearly 1,000 young scholars from around the world registered for the Forum, and invitations were sent after selection by academic organizations. The participants came from renowned universities at home and abroad, and many of them have expressed their intention to join SYSU through communication ahead of the Forum.