Couple donate one billion yuan to Fudan University

With Fudan University about to celebrate its 120th anniversary, Li Ping and Liao Mei, an alumni couple, have made a one-time donation of 1 billion yuan ($137.2 million) to their alma mater in support of the construction of the university's Xue Min Institute of Advanced Studies, which has started recruiting talent from around the world, regardless of disciplines and nationalities.

The institute, which aims to become one of the world's top institutions for high-level basic research and interdisciplinary research of natural sciences, is opening its doors to the globe's best young scientists within five years after graduation from their doctoral programs. It expects to bring in about 100 top young scientists within the first decade, with special focus on the post-90s and post-95s, according to the university.

Abundant resources and steady long-term support will be provided to the recruits to help them carry out research with original breakthroughs, technological revolutions and far-reaching influences, striving for research results that can push forward the development of society by leaps and bounds without having to worry about short-term problems.

The institute will also be equipped with an academic council consisting of high-level international scholars, including Nobel Prize winners.

Nobel laureate in chemistry Michael Levitt, a member of the academic council, said he expects the institute to blend the best of Eastern and Western academics and become a global leader in advanced studies.

"We hope scholars from various fields across the world can gather here, to carry out in-depth, long-term and forward-looking original research."

The university in Shanghai has said that the institute is innovating a flexible operational mechanism that breaks walls between disciplines.

Instead of chasing intently after hot button issues or papers, it encourages free exploration on innovative scientific theories, method and techniques in new research fields, with focuses on a wide range of advanced sectors including mathematics, physical science, chemistry, materials, biology, medicine, environment, artificial intelligence and big data.

Eyeing interdisciplinary, cutting edge and international research, the institute is committed to becoming a global leading source of scientific and technological innovations, contributing to Fudan's efforts in helping to promote China as a sci-tech powerhouse.

"We have been looking for such a donation program at Fudan, which we expect to be academically challenging, time-consuming, financially demanding but can have a profound effect on society. We regard it as our social responsibility," said Liao Mei, an alumnus in the class of 1986 from the Department of History at Fudan University.

Li Ping, a polymers major in the class of 1985 from Fudan's Department of Materials Science, is the co-founder of the Chinese battery giant CATL.

He and Liao met at the university and eventually tied the knot. They first learned about the university's plan of establishing an advanced studies institute in November, and quickly hit it off after rounds of discussions.

"We feel China has come to the stage where it can make some contributions to the whole of humanity and world in the fields of natural sciences and basic sciences," said Li.

wangxin2@chinadaily.com.cn