On the morning of October 26, 2016, Chen Shiyi, President of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), was invited to the first of academician lecture series hosted by Shenzhen Office of Leadership Body for Talents and organized by Shenzhen Institute of Talent Training at the Qilinshan Sanatorium, delivering a wonderful speech with the theme of “Over the Past Eleven Years since My Return to China: My Education Dream and Way of Educational Practice”. The lecture was chaired by Zheng Xiuyu, Deputy Secretary of the Organization Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee.

At his speech, President Chen Shiyi provided a brief description of his experience at schools and work: After he got his college, master’s and doctoral degrees at domestic elite colleges, he continued to study and work in the U.S. for nearly 20 years. In 2005, he returned to China and worked in Peking University, and took the post of the President of SUSTech. He said that education is his fondest dream for a lifetime and his return to China to be devoted to education contributed to his love of the motherland. When talking about his work in SUSTech today, he said frankly: “I believe there is still a long way for SUSTech to go. Coming to SUSTech is the most important and best decision I have made in my life.”

Following that, he talked about his own education dream and way of educational practice in “what I do as a scientist”, “what I do in SUSTech” and “the experience about my return to China to start new careers”.

Endless “turbulence”, ceaseless research

Comparing himself to a “painter”, President Chen Shiyi drew an analogy between the blueprint he designed and paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, and naturally switched to his major research direction – hydromechanics – from the story about underground water in Rome. Through his explanations on natural phenomena in life such as coffee stirring and turbulence on planes, he led all the audience to enter a wonderful “turbulence” world, bringing complex turbulence theory to a new life. In addition, he also provided an awesome introduction to cutting-edge technological achievements in hydromechanics, related research direction national key laboratories focus on and other topics. President is the first Chinese scientist who gave a speech at the International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM), the most influential international event with the highest level in mechanics, for his remarkable achievements in mechanics. As the incumbent president of SUSTech, he still spares time on scientific research.

Connect with SUSTech, live our dreams

Afterwards, covering the topics such as basic situation, governance system, development strategies, discipline classification, talent team, and innovative spirit, President Chen Shiyi comprehensively introduced how SUSTech runs a school in detail – “we need to build a world-class research-oriented university based on China”. When talking about three-step development strategy SUSTech develops, namely, “domestically advanced, then domestically first-class, and world-class in the end”, he stated: “The growth of a university should be integrated with the development of cities and the times”. In his view, Shenzhen is the best fertile soil for entrepreneurship, and SUSTech should continue the spirit and context of Shenzhen and strive to deliver on the promises of “knowledge creating, innovation and entrepreneurship”, making due contributions to the continuous development of Shenzhen, Guangdong and even the nation. Meanwhile, he took the opportunity to express his heartfelt thanks to the nation, Guangdong and Shenzhen for their strong support for SUSTech’s development and growth.

Three combinations, three spirits

When talking about what impressed him most about his return to China to start new careers, President Chen Shiyi highlighted “three combinations”, that is, the combination of ideality with reality, individual values with social values, and Chinese with western. “When one behaves himself and makes choices, the way of excessive idealization alone does not work, but also needs down-to-earth style, which does not mean abandoning the ideal,” said he when talking about the combination of ideality with reality. As for the combination of individual values with social values, President Chen Shiyi emphasized the development concept of SUSTech again, pointing out that its development must be tailored to Chinese conditions and align with the development strategies of the nation, Guangdong and Shenzhen. Additionally, he also underscored three spirits including dedication, being unostentatious and collectivism. “As human being and talents, we do not care about ourselves that much, but care about what we can leave for human beings and society,” said he frankly. It is our dreams that urge us to be dedicated and unostentatious. Affectingly, in addition to emphasis on the significance of collectivism and a united team to the development of a school, President Chen Shiyi also mentioned the teachers of SUSTech several times, offering a full recognition of their contributions to the development of SUSTech.

Q&A

At the end of the lecture, many thanks from President Chen Shiyi went to all the attendees and expressed the determination to build SUSTech into a world-class university. Following the lecture, audiences said that they had a deep understanding and perception about education and even SUSTech.

Zhang Qian, Sub-inspector of the Organization Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, as well as representatives from organizations including the Shenzhen Education Bureau, SUSTech, Shenzhen University, Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, Peking University ShenZhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, students from the high-level talent training class of Shenzhen Institute of Talent Training, and relevant workers heard the lecture.