Source: Office of Talent Development, Publicity Department
Written by: Office of Talent Development, Publicity Department
Translated by: Liu Jinhong
Proofread by: Ian Heuer
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On the morning of June 9, 2018, Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) held the plenary meeting of the Sixth International Young Scholars Forum at the Southern Science and Technology Conference Center in the Southern Software Park, located in the Zhuhai National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone. Mr. Zhao Jianguo, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Zhuhai Municipal Committee; Mr. Yan Wu, Vice Mayor of Zhuhai; SYSU President Luo Jun; SYSU Vice Presidents Zhu Xiping and Wang Xuehua; Chinese Academy of Sciences members Zhang Peizhen and Gao Rui; Chinese Academy of Engineering member Wang Fuming; young scholars from overseas; and representatives from SYSU schools and functional departments attended the meeting.


Vice President Wang Xuehua presided over the plenary meeting and delivered opening remarks. On behalf of the University, he extended a warm welcome to the young scholars present at the forum and expressed sincere gratitude to Zhuhai City for its strong support for SYSU over the years. He expressed his hope for the young scholars to take this opportunity to discuss academic issues and strengthen academic exchanges, and to participate in the development and innovation in Zhuhai and SYSU.

On behalf of the CPC Zhuhai Municipal Committee and Zhuhai Municipal People’s Government, Deputy Secretary Zhao Jianguo presented a speech. He pointed out that Zhuhai, adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, will benefit greatly from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and maintain strong momentum and great potential for development. He remarked that the CPC Zhuhai Municipal Committee and Zhuhai Municipal People’s Government will support the construction and development of Zhuhai Campus as always. He also expressed his hope that the young scholars could regard Zhuhai as a new starting point for realizing their personal ideals and career aspirations, and encourage more innovative talents to come to Zhuhai.

President Luo Jun delivered a keynote report on SYSU’s development in the new era. He pointed out that SYSU unswervingly implements the Party’s educational policy and Xi Jinping’s educational thought. The University has established the goal of "accelerating its advancement in the first tier of universities nationwide and forging ahead to enter the forefront of world-class universities, all while remaining firmly rooted in China”, and will continually speed up its pace of “Double First-Class” construction. He stressed that SYSU is making great efforts to transform itself from an outstanding university to a world-class university with Chinese characteristics, and strengthening the University with talents is a fundamental concept and fundamental strategy to realize this transformation. He focused on the objectives, development planning, platform construction and key tasks of Zhuhai Campus construction and development in the next three years. President Luo Jun pointed out that the University has made a strategic decision to comprehensively enhance the strength of Zhuhai Campus, and will make full efforts to build a modern coastal campus with top level institutional management and wide-ranging global impact, with emphasis on the development of deep sea, deep space and deep earth disciplines, serving the national marine power strategy, space science strategy, the “Belt and Road” Initiative, and serving the national and local in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. Lastly, he expressed warm invitations to the outstanding young scholars present at the forum, noting that the University will provide competitive salaries, give support to faculty and staff in housing and the education of their children, and offer better space and more open channels for development to ensure that various talents will realize their academic ambitions and career ideals at SYSU.

As representatives of the school deans and professors on Zhuhai Campus, Academician Wang Fuming, Dean of the School of Civil Engineering, Professor Zhao Yulin, Dean of the School of Mathematics (Zhuhai), Professor Huang Zhiqi from the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Professor Zhang Jian from the School of Earth Sciences and Engineering delivered speeches.

From the afternoon of June 9 to June 10, forty-eight schools and departments of SYSU held sub-forums and academic exchange meetings.

More than 860 scholars from around the globe applied for the forum, and the academic committee selected over 400 participants from well-known universities including Harvard University, The University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Yale University, National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, The University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and many more. Among them, 47.2% have obtained or are studying for their PhD degrees overseas, and about 75% are below the age of 35. Many of the scholars have expressed their intention to join SYSU before the forum.