During the 2016 National Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week was held in Shenzhen, October 12 saw the grand opening of the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute at the Shenzhen Civil Center. Jointly established by the Southern University of Science and Technology and the Nobel Prize winner Robert H. Grubbs, the research institute is the first research institute in mainland China to be named after a Nobel Prize winner and it will be built into a world-class research center focusing on the development of new drugs, new materials and new energy.
Professor Robert H. Grubbs, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen Chen Biao, Party secretary and Deputy director of the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission Qiu Xuan, Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Bureau of Education Wu Yun, Deputy Inspector of the Municipal Foreign Affairs Office Tan Fuying, Party Secretary of the Southern University of Science and Technology Guo Yurong, Principal Chen Shiyi and other leaders of the school as well as members and professors from the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute attended the opening ceremony. Professor Zhang Xumu, who studied from the same teacher as professor Grubbs and now serves as the dean of the chemistry department of the Southern University of Science and Technology, presided over the ceremony.
Professor Robert H. Grubbs was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 for his epoch-making contribution to the field of olefin metathesis. Now he works as the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins professor of chemistry at California Institute of Technology with the title of “lifelong distinguished professor.” In September 2015, he was invited by the Southern University of Science and Technology to work as the chairman of the academic advisory committee of the chemistry department. Professor Grubbs is highly experienced in original scientific innovation, industrialization and talent education and training. The catalyst named after him has been widely applied in such fields as drugs, materials, energy and chemical engineering. With the Grubbs catalyst as the core platform, Professor Grubbs has created a number of high-tech enterprises involved in new materials, new energy, medical materials and green chemical engineering and they have achieved great success.
The establishment of the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute has been greatly supported by the Shenzhen Municipal Committee, the Shenzhen Municipal Government and related functional departments. In recent years, Professor Grubbs has visited Shenzhen many times. Ma Xingrui, deputy secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and party secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, and Xu Qin, mayor of Shenzhen, extended a warm welcome to Professor Grubbs. Both of them stressed the profound significance of establishing the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute with the help of the Southern University of Science and Technology and promised that Shenzhen would create favorable conditions for the cooperation between Professor Grubbs and the Southern University of Science and Technology.
On the opening ceremony, Chen Shiyi spoke about the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute. He expressed his gratitude to Mr. Grubbs for visiting the Southern University of Science and Technology and cooperating with the university in the fields of new drugs, new materials and new energy. He believed that the arrival of the world-famous master in scholarship, education and industrialization and the establishment of the research institute in the prosperous city with the help of the vibrant university is bound to attract more world-class talents in the related fields, make world-class achievements, promote a world-class industrial revolution and make greater contributions to the higher education, technological development and industrial upgrading of Shenzhen.
Grubbs also delivered a speech on the ceremony. He expressed his gratitude to the leaders of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee and the Shenzhen Municipal Government for their support, especially Secretary Ma Xingrui and Mayor Xu Qin. He also thanked the Southern University of Science and Technology and its principal Chen Shiyi for their support for the successful establishment of the research institute in such a short time. He said he had been engaged in catalysis-related fields for decades since he studied for his master’s degree. Now, the contribution of catalytic technologies accounts for about 35% of the global GDP and they are mainly applied in the development of small-molecule drugs and polymer materials as well as petroleum and chemical industries. The Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute focuses on three research domains, namely new drugs (small molecules used for drug synthesis), new materials (synthetic polymers) and new energy. He holds high expectations for the research institute and looks forward to the growth of young researchers and the success of the institute.
On behalf of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee and the Shenzhen Municipal Government, Chen Biao expressed his warm congratulations on the establishment of the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute and extended a warm welcome to Professor Grubbs. He pointed out that the research institute led by Professor Grubbs will help build the Southern University of Science and Technology into a high-level university and improve the training of innovative talents. Under the leadership of Professor Grubbs, the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute will cultivate world-class talents for Shenzhen and China and make world-class achievements in scientific research.
Subsequently, Grubbs, Chen Biao, Guo Yurong, Chen Shiyi, Qiu Xuan, Wu Yun, Tan Fuying and others jointly inaugurated the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute
According to the relevant agreements signed by the two parties, the Shenzhen Grubbs Research Institute will be built into a world-class scientific research center for the development of new drugs, new materials and new energy. Professor Grubbs served as the dean of the research institute. Relying on the Southern University of Science and Technology, the research institute will set up a new drugs research center, a new materials research center and a clean energy and chemical process research center. It will bring in high-end talents from all over the country and the world and build itself into an international and open world-class research institute in Shenzhen, China and even the world to cultivate world-class talents, make world-class achievements and actively promote the basic research and industrial development of new drugs, new materials and new energy in Shenzhen and China.
This year, the Southern University of Science and Technology strengthen its efforts to bring in talents and continues to recruit high-quality teachers. The university has achieved brilliant results in bringing in academicians and Peacock Teams, gathering intellectual resources in Shenzhen. On the Launch Ceremony of the Shenzhen Talent Research Institute and the Award Ceremony of Talent Introduction and Training, which was recently held in Shenzhen, the university was awarded the “Bo Le Talent Introduction Award.” Six teams from the Southern University of Science and Technology have been selected for the 2016 Shenzhen Overseas High-level Talents “Peacock Teams” (first batch), accounting for half of the selected teams from Shenzhen and receiving a government subsidy of 190 million yuan. The Nature Index 2016 Rising Stars released in the supplementary issue of Nature has selected the world’s top 100 countries and institutes with the most significant growth of high-quality research papers, in which the Southern University of Science and Technology ranks 62nd and its growth rate ranks third in the world.
