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University of Science and Technology of China, USTC
The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a prominent university in China and enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide. It was established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1958 in Beijing, as a strategic action by the Chinese government, to meet China’s science and technology needs and increases the country’s international competitiveness. CAS integrated its resources with USTC, with the aim of educating top talent in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary science and technology. The establishment of USTC was hailed as “a great event in the history of education and science of China”. In 1970, USTC moved to its current location in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province.
From the start, USTC’s mission has been to “focus on frontier areas of science and technology and educate top leaders in science and technology for China and the world”. Central to its strategy has been the combination of education and research, as well as the emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Led by the most renowned Chinese scientists of the time, USTC set up a series of programs creatively encompassing frontier research and development of new technology. As a result, the university has taken the lead in higher education in China.
USTC is a world leader in fields like quantum manipulation, nanotechnology, high-temperature superconductivity, speech processing, fire science and life science. It is always ranked as one of the best universities in China. For example, USTC was ranked first among Chinese universities from 2008 to 2013 by Nature Publishing Index China. In addition, USTC attaches great importance to technology transfer and has incubated dozens of high-tech enterprises. Furthermore, it jointly built the Institute of Advanced Technology (IAT) with Hefei City in 2012, aiming to better promote the combination of education, research and industry. USTC-IAT focuses on fostering technological innovation and technology transfer in the IT industry, as well as microelectronics, health care, new energy, new materials and quantum information, etc.
USTC is regarded in China as the “Cradle of Scientific Elites”. Its educational principle emphasizes fundamental theories and provides students with a wide range of high-level training that incorporates newly emerging as well as interdisciplinary fields of study. The faculty-to-student ratio is one of the best among Chinese universities. Admission to USTC is extremely selective. Only the top 0.3-0.5 percent of high school graduates are admitted. Over 70 percent of undergraduate students are involved in the Research Program for Undergraduate Students in CAS research institutes or national labs on campus. USTC has the highest percentage of alumni, among Chinese universities, elected as members of CAS and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Doctoral dissertations at USTC are frequently awarded the Hundred Annual Outstanding Dissertations Prize, which honors the top dissertations from Chinese universities.
USTC actively participates in international cooperation in various ways. It has engaged in joint research and educational activities with internationally acclaimed organizations such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Max Planck Society, Oxford University, Heidelberg University, Stanford University, MIT, Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University, etc. For example, it established a training program with ITER and initiated the SUM program, a summer camp for students and an academic forum for professors from Stanford University, USTC and MIT. USTC is also a member of several important international networks, including the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and the Association of East Asian Research Universities, etc. In 2013, USTC hosted the signing ceremony for the Hefei Statement, which USTC has actively promoted. The Hefei Statement is an agreement among the Association of American Universities (AAU), the C9 League (C9), a consortium of China’s top nine research universities, the Group of Eight (Go8), a coalition of Australia’s top universities, and the League of European Research Universities (LERU) to promote cooperation among world-class research universities.
Citation:http://en.ustc.edu.cn/about/201101/t20110113_87798.html
School of Life Sciences, USTC
The School of Life Sciences was founded by Bei shizhang，a renowned scientist in Beijing in 1958 with emphasis on Biophysics at beginning and flourished to many branches of biological sciences in recent years. The new School of Life Sciences was established in Hefei, AnHui province in 1998 and the founding dean was Prof. Shi Yunyu, a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. It consists of four departments: Molecular and Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Biophysics, Systems Biology and Biomedicine and Biotechnology. For scientific research, the School of Life Sciences has established a Center for Laboratory Techniques of Life Sciences and a division under National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale. Moreover, there are two students practice bases which are located in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province and Shengjing Lake, Anhui province.
At present, there are eighty-seven teachers in the School of Life Sciences, forty-two of them are professors (including two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) and fifteen of them are associate professors. All professors and associate professors are responsible for various aspects of teaching and research. They are providing various courses for undergraduates, graduates and PhD candidates. The teachers in the School Life Sciences are running many research projects, including general and key projects from National Science Foundation of China, key projects from the knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, projects of the National Basic Research (973), projects of the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863), and the Major Program for the Fundamental Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. More than 70% of the professors are recruited from overseas in recent years. Twenty-two of them are honored as “One Hundred Talented People” of The Chinese Academy of Sciences, eight of them are honored as China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists, three of them are ChangJiang River scholar award scheme professors.
Presently, there are about 400 undergraduate students, 400 graduate students and 200 PhD candidates in our school. Because of the strong backgrounds in life sciences, our graduated students are playing more and more important roles in high education of scientific research both at homeland and abroad. Some of them have made prominent contributions to national sciences and were honored by various awards and medals from academic societies. Three doctoral dissertations were honored as the Awards for National 100 Excellent PHD Thesis. Four doctoral dissertations were honored as the Excellent PhD Thesis of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Citation: http://en.biox.ustc.edu.cn/About/xyjj/201106/t20110610_112992.html
