science & technology

UNDERGRADS’ t y c h U niversi that would attract FIRST DAY  researchers from ShanghaiTech opened its doors around the world, to undergraduates thereby ensuring a for the first time on constant influx of Sept. 30, 2014. new people and ideas

esy of S h a ngh iTe of t esy to the area and cata- lyzing collaborations Cour across multiple disciplines. This network comprises three facilities built with major support from the Shanghai government.

First is the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, a third-generation syn- chrotron radiation light source that has been attracting thousands of users locally and globally each year since it became fully operational in 2009. Next is the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, which was inaugurated in 2009. The institute under- Engine Of takes research and trains students in areas critical to China, such as communication technology, energy efficiency, greenhouse Innovation gas management, and advanced technolo- gies for chronic diseases and regenerative Just established, ShanghaiTech University hopes to raise the medicine. And third is the National Cen- quality of higher education and academic research in China ter for Protein Science Shanghai, which opened in June 2013 and aims to be “an A. Maureen Rouhi, C&EN Asia advanced global technology platform and an internationally competitive research center for protein science.” Even as China is poised to lead the in 2015, ShanghaiTech will be within easy “The leadership of the local government world in R&D spending by 2019, the quality reach of global R&D-based companies. was forward-looking,” Jiang says. The hope of the country’s scientific output still trails Since the 1990s, Shanghai’s economy is that these three resources around Shang- that of developed economies. China’s gov- has boomed through manufacturing and haiTech would raise the quality of science, ernment is acutely aware of the gap and has exports. The local government knew that promote cross-pollination, and boost the been taking diverse measures to narrow it. the city could not forever depend on these probability of translating research to in- Among them is the establishment of a “re- activities and determined that it should novation. search ecosystem” in the country’s most foster innovation in high-technology in- As ShanghaiTech drew inspiration from populated city, Shanghai. Last year, China dustries to maintain its economic vibrance, U.S. innovation hubs for its research eco- opened its newest academic research insti- according to ShanghaiTech President system, it has been drawing upon foreign tution there: ShanghaiTech University. Mianheng Jiang. He observes that hotbeds expertise and partnerships to help build its Established by the Shanghai municipal of innovation, such as Route 128 around human capital and advance its goals. government and the Chinese Academy of Boston and Silicon Valley outside of San Jiang recruited University of California, Sciences, ShanghaiTech aims to be both an Francisco, thrive in places with easy access Berkeley, chemist and materials scientist exemplary institution of higher education to world-class research universities, which Peidong Yang to help build ShanghaiTech’s and an engine of innovation that supports Pudong lacked. Locating the university School of Physical Sciences & Technology Shanghai’s dynamic economy and provides amid global industrial R&D centers, Jiang (SPST). Foremost among his tasks is to solutions to China’s needs and to global says, was a deliberate move to fill a gap in select panels of experts, typically from the challenges. It hopes to achieve these goals Shanghai’s high-technology enterprise. faculty of UC Berkeley and Stanford Uni- through an academic system new to China. Before the university could rise, another versity, to interview faculty candidates for The university’s buildings are now ris- key ingredient had to be in place: a net- ShanghaiTech in the U.S. Because everyone ing in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, also work of R&D facilities with infrastructure in the panel has “very high standards,” known as Zhangjiang InnoPark, in Pudong, the Shanghai district east of Huangpu River just across Shanghai’s historic center in Puxi. In the 1990s, the Pudong landscape “Innovation can happen anywhere, but rapidly transformed from farmland into the tenure track may be the best system iconic skyscrapers, free-trade zones, and high-technology parks. When completed to encourage innovation in academia.”

CEN.ACS.Org 27 January 19,2015 Yang says, the caliber of ShanghaiTech’s faculty ratio, at most 12 to 1; interdisci- these agreements support what Shanghai- faculty hires is “very high.” plinary schools and institutes instead of Tech is calling its 3 + 1 + N Program: If third- In turn, Yang enlisted UC Berkeley departments based on traditional fields; year ShanghaiTech students (3) complete chemists Christopher J. Chang and Mi- and broad cooperation with international a fourth year at a partner school (+ 1), the chelle C. Chang to help with the materials partners in academia and industry. students will be admitted to the partner bioresearch center, one of SPST’s three The university has already signed school’s graduate program (+ N), provided research centers. Among other things, the memorandums of understanding with UC they meet the requirements. Gong says Changs, who are married to each other, ad- Berkeley and the University of Chicago, says ShanghaiTech is pursuing similar agree- vise young faculty and help them get their Jinkang Gong, a university vice president ments with other U.S. and European univer- independent careers off the ground. Yang and SPST professor. Among other things, sities, including Massachusetts Institute of also convinced Stanford materials scientist Technology and the University of Oxford. Yi Cui to chair SPST’s international advi- ShanghaiTech plans to have 2,000 un- sory board. “Helping China build its best dergrads and 4,000 graduate students once research university,” Cui says, “is like my ShanghaiTech it’s at full capacity. So far, SPST has hired payback to China for educating me.” At a Glance 10 faculty and has 15 more hires in negotia- Yang, the Changs, and Cui are palpably tion, UC Berkeley’s Yang says. The school excited about the chance to help shape ◾◾ Origin: Established by the Shanghai alone plans to recruit 120 faculty over 10 what could be China’s premier research municipal government and the Chinese years, he adds. university. Whether that dream will come Academy of Sciences; opened to On top of its own hires, ShanghaiTech true is uncertain, but the university is graduate students on Sept. 30, 2013 also enjoys the service of faculty from other implementing practices that could lead to universities, especially those in Shanghai. ◾◾ Concept: Small-scale research success. university with tenure-track faculty This arrangement promotes even more For example, all faculty are on a tenure where research and education combine cross-pollination, Gong says. Also impor- track. Chinese universities typically have to support local economy, solve global tant, it gives students the benefit of the best a professoriat organized like the system in challenges teachers available. For example, he explains, Europe, where most faculty do research undergrads are getting their general educa- under the supervision of a senior profes- Enrollment tion economics lectures from an economics sor. In the tenure-track system, faculty do professor at nearby Fudan University. independent research from the get-go, and 2013: 296 graduate students With support from two powerful institu- only those who earn tenure are retained. 2014: 432 graduate students and 207 tions—the Chinese Academy of Sciences Some Chinese universities have adopted undergraduates and the Shanghai government—Shanghai- tenure tracks for specific academic units, Tech is poised to take flight. But progress but ShanghaiTech is the first to apply the Projected: 4,000 graduate students could be impeded by external factors. A practice systemwide. and 2,000 undergraduates looming question is the sustainability of financial support from the city of Shanghai, “Innovation can happen anywhere, Schools & Institutes which now provides 100% of the university’s but the tenure track may be the best system ◾◾ School of Physical Science & operating budget. “We need to look in the to encourage innovation in academia,” Cui Technology: Founding Dean Peidong private sector for support,” says Jiang, the says. “It picks the best people and makes Yang, University of California, Berkeley. university’s president. “Successful entre- good people become even better. Evalua- preneurs will want to invest in education.” tion is based on creativity, originality, and ◾◾ School of Life Science & Jiang has been intimately involved in innovation.” Technology: Founding Dean Haifan Lin, the planning for ShanghaiTech for more Implicit in the excitement about tenure Yale University. than a decade. His scientific credentials are track is an acknowledgment of the quality ◾◾ School of Information Science & solid: He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engi- of Chinese academic research. “China does Technology: Founding Dean Cher Wang. neering from Drexel University, worked at not have enough quality of higher educa- Hewlett-Packard, was a Chinese Academy tion,” says Jiang, ShanghaiTech’s president. ◾◾ School of Entrepreneurship & of Sciences vice president for many years, The quality of higher education is a top Management: Dean R. May Lee. and still runs a research group. But being priority in China, notes Jay Siegel, dean of ◾◾ Shanghai Institute for Advanced the son of Jiang Zemin, China’s president the School of Pharmaceutical Science & Immunochemical Studies: Founding from 1993 through 2003, opens him to un- Technology at Tianjin University, about Director Richard A. Lerner, Scripps usual scrutiny. Unfazed, the younger Jiang 680 miles northwest of ShanghaiTech. He Research Institute. Focus on antibody says, “I’m just doing my job.” himself was hired to bolster Tianjin Uni- research. By 2018, the first batch of undergrads at versity’s efforts on this front. International ShanghaiTech will graduate, and measur- iHuman Institute: Founding programs with foreign hires, English as the ◾◾ ing success can then begin. “At minimum, Director Raymond C. Stevens, language of instruction, and tenure-track- we expect our graduates to get good jobs,” University of Southern California. Focus like options are just some of the ideas tak- Jiang says. “We would like to see them on human cell signaling ing hold all over China, Siegel says. become leaders in business and academia. Other features that ShanghaiTech hopes SOURCE: ShanghaiTech University Eventually, we would like to have Nobel will ensure success are a low student-to- Prize winners.” ◾

CEN.ACS.Org 28 January 19,2015