INTRODUCTION

The Center is honored to have Nobel Laureate Professor Chen Ning Yang as its Honorary Director, who has provided guidance and support to the Center’s development since its inception, and Professor Hwa-Tung Nieh, formerly of Stony Brook, has been serving as its Director. A number of the world’s leading academics, such as Prof. S.S. Chern (deseased), Prof. C.C. Lin, Prof. Zhou Guangzhao, and Prof. S.T. Yau, have lent their support to the Center by serving as Advisors. The Center is also privileged to have a roster of distinguished scholars to serve on its Academic Committee, which provides guidance and advises on the Center’s academic matters, such as evaluation and/or recommendation on academic candidates as well as on the performance of the Center’s academic staff. In 2004, Turin Prize winning Professor Andrew C. C. Yao, formerly of Princeton, joined the Center as a full-time faculty.

The Center actively recruits distinguished scholars from inside and outside of China to the Center’s faculty, and seek the up and coming young research scholars to work in the academic disciplines the Center is currently focused on:

*theoretical physics;

*theoretical computer science;

*theoretical biology.

The Center has also been actively recruiting suitable academics in the area of pure mathematics. Other appropriate areas of study will be considered at opportune times as the Center evolves. Innovative and cross-disciplinary research efforts, especially those that might pave pathways leading to new scientific and technological developments, are strongly encouraged.

By the approval of the University Council of Tsinghua University, the academic ranks in the Center are:

*Professor;

*Member;

*Associate Member.

Of the three, Professorship is a permanent appointment, while the other two are term appointments. Members and Associate Members are appointed with an initial term of three years, and eligible for newal at the same rank for an additional term of three years. Postdoctoral fellowships are available for two-year appointments.

To strengthen academic exchange with the world’s leading research institutions on a regular basis, we have actively recruited as Chang-Jiang Chair Professors distinguished young ethnic Chinese scholars from overseas, including Shou-Cheng Zhang of Stanford, Xiao-Gang Wen of MIT , Shou-Wu Zhang of Columbia, Dung-Hai Lee of UC Berkeley, Terrence Hwa of UC San Diego, and Li You of Georgia Tech. Every year, they take residence in the Center for periods of various lengths to lecture and work with the Center’s research staff and graduate students. Numerous distinguished academics from around the world have visited the Center. Among them are the lecturers of the C.N. Yang Nobel Lectures series (supported by the Cheng Endowment and Microsoft Research Asia) : Robert Laughlin of Stanford, Murray Gell-Mann of Sante Fe Insitute, Douglas Osheroff of Stanford, Andrew Yao of Princeton, Gerardus ‘t Hooft of Utrecht, Avi Wigderson of Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Moses Chan of Pennsylvania State University, Wolfgang Ketterle of MIT, Richard Karp of Berkeley and P. James E. Peebles of Princeton.

In addition to the Chang-Jiang Chairs, the Center also seeks out other distinguished scholars as Adjunct Professors. They include Yu Lu, Su Zhao-bin and Ouyang Zhongcan, all of the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Distinguished scholars, like Wu-chung Hsiang of Princeton, Wu-yi Hsiang of Berkeley, Shiu-Yuen Cheng of the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, and Jason Tin-Lun Ho of Ohio State University are the Center’s Visiting Professors.

The Center is currently housed in the western wing of the New Science Building in the northwest corner of the campus. It is scheduled to move in early 2007 into the renovated Science Hall, which is centrally located in Qing-Hua-Yuan and has a well-known tradition of having housed a host of China’s most distinguished scientists. Through the generous donation of Mr. And Mrs. James Simons, an attractive apartment complex on campus – the Chern-Simons Hall - was completed in 2005, providing housing for the Center’s academic visitors. While the its physical environment is attractive by international standard, the Center makes conscious effort to foster an intellectual culture that encourages independent thinking and exploration of new frontiers of science. We strive to provide a physical and cultural environment for scholarly research, aiming to bring out to the fullest the intellectual and creative potentials of the Center’s members – freedom to pursue research topics within the general confines of the Center’s research emphasis, stimulating intellectual atmosphere, access to distinguished visiting scientists, abundant opportunities to attend domestic and international workshops and conferences, and participation in academic exchange programs with domestic and international institutions.

To provide financial support for the Center’s development, Professor C.N. Yang initiated in 1998 the establishment of the Foundation of Tsinghua University Center for Advanced Study. The Center has been greatly helped by the Foundation in providing to the Center’s faculty and staff additional supplements so that they can maintain a reasonably attractive life style in Beijing. Through the generous donation of Mr. And Mrs. Dunson Cheng and the support of the University administration, C.N. Yang Professorships have been established to support and recognize the Center’s distinguished faculty. Current holders of the Professorship are Zheng-Yu Weng and Wang Xiaoyun.

Another basic mission of the Center is the nurturing of young talents. The Center maintains a high standard in selecting the very best graduate students, and strives to provide them with a stimulating educational and research environment that encourages independence and creativity. The C.N. Yang Fellowship program has been set up to award fellowships to excellent fisrt-year graduate students. Each year, the Center also awards students for good performance in research and/or study. We adopt a graduate education program that allows the freedom of two-way selection by graduate students and their prospective PhD thesis advisors. We encourage and arrange for supervision of graduate students by the Center’s adjunct faculty and overseas Chang-Jiang Chair Professors. Several of the Center’s graduates are already competetive for postdoctoral fellowships in the best universities on the world scene.