A ceremony was held in the People’s Congress Hall on Mar. 28 to mark the appointment of 180 professors as “Yangtze River Scholar” of 2004, of whom 6 are SYSU professors. They are professor of zoology Wu Zoology, professor of computational mathematics Xu Yuesheng, professor of medical virus and oncology Li Mengfeng, professor of ophthalmology Yang Peizeng, professor of modern history Sang Bing, and professor of macromolecule chemistry and physics Zhang Mingqiu. SYSU president Huang Daren led the delegation of those appointed scholars to attend the ceremony and addressed the meeting as the only representative for university officials.

This time altogether 180 professors have been listed in the “Yangtze River Scholar Scheme” 2004 and 9 of them are from Guangdong universities. Sun Yat-sen University selected 7 candidates from more than 50 applicants for the program and six of them were approved by the Ministry of Education, which makes the number of SYSU professor accredited to “Yangtze River Scholar” come to 16. For the first time, the 2004 scheme covers humanity and social sciences and professor Sang Bing is the singe Yangtze Scholar in the field of history.

"Yangtze River Scholar Scheme" is a trans-century creative talent program funded by Ministry of Education and Hongkong Li Ka-Shing Foundation in 1998, aiming to attract the young talents at home and abroad to devote themselves to the construction of key subjects in university, and cultivate some academic leaders at advanced international level. As a creative talent initiative, it has become a well-known brand and an important state program in China.

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