Yang Fujia, the former president of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, died on Sunday (July 17) at the age of 86. This well-known educator in China is also the first Chinese president of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Fudan University posted a long message on its official website on Sunday in memory of Yang Fu’s family, and at the same time set all the official website pages to gray. Fudan University said Yang Fujia pursued excellence, describing it as his “lifelong belief”.
Fudan University said that Yang Fujia has always been deeply involved in cutting-edge scientific research in physics and made efforts to build Fudan into a first-class university. At the same time, he has also made outstanding contributions to the research of applied physics in China, and has made significant achievements in nuclear spectroscopy, nuclear decay analysis, ion beam research, etc., and has created the research field of ion beam analysis in China.
In addition, Yang Fujia has made outstanding contributions to China’s higher education and international exchanges of education, attaches great importance to education and teaching, launched the plan of “basic courses for famous professors”, actively advocated multiple evaluation systems, and encouraged research universities, general universities, vocational colleges and other universities. The coordinated development of similar institutions of higher learning promotes the international exchange of education between China and foreign countries.
Yang Fujia was born in Shanghai in 1936. In 1954, he was admitted to the Department of Physics of Fudan University with honors. In 1963, he was selected as a visiting scholar at the Bohr Institute in Denmark to conduct research on nuclear reaction energy spectroscopy.
In 1978, Yang Fujia was appointed head of the Department of Nuclear Science at Fudan University and was promoted to associate professor. He established a first-class laboratory in Fudan University – “Accelerator-based Atomic and Nuclear Physics Laboratory”, and at the same time trained the first batch of doctoral students in experimental nuclear physics in China. In 1980, Yang Fujia was promoted to professor, and in 1981, he became the first doctoral supervisor of Fudan University, and then he served as the dean of the graduate school.
Yang Fujia served as the president of Fudan University from 1993 to 1999. During his tenure, he actively promoted the construction of think tanks, promoted the establishment of Fudan Development Research Institute and served as the dean; he attached great importance to the work of contacting alumni, and actively invited outstanding alumni of various departments to return to his alma mater to give lectures to young teachers and students.
After stepping down as the president of Fudan University, Yang Fujia officially became the president of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom in 2001, becoming the first Chinese to serve as the president of a famous British university.
Yang Fujia also promoted the establishment of China’s first Sino-foreign cooperative university, the University of Nottingham Ningbo, in 2004, and served as the first president of the University of Nottingham Ningbo.