SUSTech conducted breaking research over the course of the year, including the latest scientific achievements, the appearance of the first academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenzhen, and the first grant of a major project of National Natural Science Foundation of China.

With the aim to become a leading international research university, SUSTech has attached great importance to scientific research since its foundation. At the core of the academic research system at SUSTech are its research centers, laboratories and other research platforms, empowered by innovation and entrepreneurship.

Research output and impact increase for the third consecutive year

The latest natural index (statistical time node is 2016.10.01 to 2017.9.30), updated by the Nature Publishing Group, shows that SUSTech has published 138 research articles (weighted fractional count of 53.38) in 68 natural science journals that comprise the Nature Index , with an increase of 70 in publications number and 29.56 in WFC, compared to the data from December 1 in 2015 to November 30 in 2016. The rankings highlighted SUSTech’s high-quality research output and its constantly improving academic influence.

In just three years, SUSTech’s ranking in the Nature Index has risen from 55th to 28th in universities of the Chinese mainland.

In the past year, SUSTech made high-quality scientific research, yielding a significant result. SUSTech faculty members published 1453 papers in domestic and foreign academic periodicals and conferences, among which 1352 were periodical papers (790 in periodicals published by SUSTech as the first unit or communication unit), 101 conference papers and 33 books.

The quality papers were published in top international journals such as Nature Materials, Energy & Environmental Science, Nature Chemistry, PNAS, Advanced Materials, Nature Climate Change Nature Communications, Nature Geoscience, Angewandte Chemie, JACS, Physical Review Letters and others.

Academic honors keep coming

November 28, 2017, saw the official announcement of a list of new CAS members. Professor Tang Tao, the vice president of SUSTech, was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the first academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenzhen.

On January 8, 2018, the Great Hall of the People in Beijing hosted the National Science and Technology Awards Ceremony. The 2017 National Science and Technology Award selected a total of 271 projects and nine scientific and technical experts. Hu Qing, professor of School of Environmental Science and Engineering, took part in the “risk prevention and control theory and application of technology of basin water environment heavy metal pollution ” project, winning second prize at the State Science and Technology Progress Award.

On November 17, 2017, at the Global Supercomputing Conference (SC2017) in Denver, USA, the project “Nonlinear Seismic Simulation” won the international high-performance computing ACM Gordon Bell Prize, the highest award in the field of application. The project involved the collaborative projects of Chen Xiaofei and Zhang Zhenguo’s research teams of the Department of Earth and Space Science of SUSTech.

On March 22, 2017, the Science and Technology Development Center of the Ministry of Education released the notice of the 2017 Excellent Scientific Research Outstanding Achievement Award of Higher Education (Science and Technology). On December 1, the Science and Technology Development Center of the Ministry of Education issued a notice on awarding projects. Professor He Jiaqing of SUSTech won the second prize of the Natural Science Award for Science Research Excellence Achievements (Science and Technology) Prize of 2017. Professor Liu Junguo won the ” Youth Science Award of Outstanding Achievement Award (Science and Technology) in Institution of Higher Education”, which is the first award of Ministry of Education based on SUSTech’s award-winning unit.

On January 16, 2017, the State Ministry of Science and Technology released the candidate list of 2016 Publicized Talents Promotion Plan. Li Chuangchuang, an associate professor of chemistry at SUSTech, became the first national science and technology leader in science and technology in SUSTech.

On May 20, 2017, Professor Liu Junguo of School of Environmental Science and Engineering of SUSTech won the “Science for Communication” award of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). This “Science and Technology Communication Prize” was established 20 years ago and has received a total of 10 experts. Professor Liu is the first Chinese and the first Asian award-winning scientist award-winning scientist.

In June 2017, the Awards Committee of the International Institute of Computing Societies (CIS) announced the winners of the 2018 IEEE Intelligent Computing Society Outstanding Youth Award. Professor Tang Ke, a professor of computer science at SUSTech won the award. In June 2018, Professor Ke will be officially presented with the award at the 2018 Global Computing Intelligence Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The 2017 American College Students Mathematical Contest (MCM / ICM) published the list of winners. A total of 36 SUSTech undergraduate students took part in this competition and achieved excellent results. They won 4 international first prizes, 20 international second prizes and 12 international third prizes.

On October 14, 2017, the three-day 2017 China Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Competition ended in Foshan, Guangdong province. Our students won 13 awards in the team competition.

On November 14, 2017, the 2017 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) concluded at the Haynes International Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, United States. The SUSTech team competed with 313 teams from 44 countries from five continents, with their skills coming to the fore and won the gold medal. At the same time, we received three awards nominations in basic research, which are the best projects, the best hardware and best bio-component award, achieving new breakthroughs.

Increased scientific research funding enabling the groundbreaking results

In 2017, SUSTech has achieved excellent results in all kinds of scientific research projects at all levels. Over 200 professors received more than 600 million yuan of research funding for research. 109 applications were approved for national funding, with a total of 103 successful applications for the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the establishment of projects; and six applications for the Ministry of Science and Technology project. An additional 144 applications were approved for provincial or city funding, with 25 applications for Guangdong Province Science and Technology Project; 106 projects for Shenzhen Science and Technology Project; 6 projects for humanities and social sciences project; and seven items for other projects.

The major project of “Airsoft Horn Source Technology and Its Application for Detection of Terrestrial Crust Structure” declared by Professor Chen Xiaofei’s team of SUSTech was funded. The successful funding for this project marks the first time that SUSTech has taken the lead in undertaking major projects for the National Natural Science Foundation of China. SUSTech was awarded the “Key Laboratory of Microbial Environment and Disease Research in Guangdong Province” and the “Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Prevention and Control in Guangdong Province”, this being the first time SUSTech has been awarded such an honor for a provincial research platform. Guangchuang team made a breakthrough this year, and six Guangchuang teams won project grants, also setting new standards.

Liberal arts research in SUSTech has also seen rapid development. Twice as many liberal arts research projects were approved in 2017 compared to 2016, with a total of 6 projects receiving approval. The amount of funding was nearly forty times that of the previous year, resulting in a dramatic improvement in our progress in the field of liberal arts. One of the projects funded was the first project funded by the National Art Fund, receiving a subsidy, which is the first time SUSTech has received such a grant in our city.

Industry-Academia partnership for community and social sustainable development

This year, SUSTech and Shengda company in Zhejiang signed an agreement to build a Chen Yiyi expert workstation, strengthening cooperation with enterprises to promote the transformation of production and research; so the “Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Computational Intelligence” was approved. Low-power and high reliability are the centerpieces of a new generation of research on computational intelligence technology that will take place at SUSTech. Also, the joint establishment of the Environmental Biotechnology Research Center and the research on environmental biotechnology research and basic technology will be on track with SUSTech, while the establishment of Letu Precise Medical Research Institute in SUSTech will promote the development of precision medicine and precision medical industry in China. Grubbs Institute in Shenzhen will be formally stationed in SUSTech and is located in the world’s leading scientific research center in the fields of new medicine, new materials and new energy.

As an innovative university, SUSTech is working hard to become the fountainhead of think tanks, new knowledge and new technologies that lead social development.