Peking University, Apr. 15, 2017: On April 9, 2017, the first Peking University Graduate Student Forum for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies was held at the Sunshine Hall of Yingjie Exchange Center, PKU. This forum is self-initiated and organized by students of Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, PKU. The forum invited 16 experts and scholars from various fields of interdisciplinary studies, more than 300 teachers and students from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other domestic universities and research institutes attended the forum.
The opening ceremony
Tian Gang
With the theme of "Exchange·integration·truth-seeking·innovation", attendants discussed the currentstatus and future application prospects of nanoscience, big data, biomedical and other cutting-edge interdisciplinary studies. The opening ceremony was anchored by Professor Tang Chao, executive dean of Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, PKU. Vice president of Peking University, academician Tian Gang delivered a speech at the opening ceremony and expressed his heartfelt congratulations on the convening of the forum.
Han Qi-de
As Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and Dean of Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, PKU, academician Han Qi-de made the first keynote speech. Han noted the importance of interdisciplinary studies from the perspectiveof his life-long medical research. Han pointed out that on the one hand, many diseases, such as high blood pressure, myopia and backache, are difficult to solve by purely medical means without big data collection and analysis, precision treatment, and engineering assistance in design; On the other hand, in order to solve the uneven resource allocation problem, natural sciences discipline should combine with social science and human science subjects. In his view, the Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, originally based on the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Biomedicine, has a very bright future, and he believes "it can develop even faster and better than now”.
With the subject of “Forgetting”, Professor Zhong Yi from School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, introduced two distinct mechanisms discovered in recent study: Active Forgetting and Passive Forgetting. He pointed out that the nerve system clears the old memory in an active way to maintain the flexibility of memory and responds to changes in environmental factors to lower the distraction in a passive way. If we can simultaneously stop both ways of forgetting, we can nearly “freeze” the entire short memory and it may last for our whole lifetime.
The second half of the keynote speech was chaired by Professor Chen Peng, vice dean of the Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies. Professor Zhang Jin, from the Nanoscience and Technology Research Center, with the title of “Nano-carbon Materials-Opportunities and Challenges”, gave a detailed introduction to the research status and application of carbon nanotubes, graphene and graphite alkynes. He implied that nano-carbon materials will be applied in many areas, but the premise of application is the major breakthroughs made in the R&D related materials.
Professor Wu Zhonghai, Executive Vice President of College of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University, introduced the status quo of innovation driven by bigdata. He said that the new generation of information technology revolution represented by “cloud computing, bigdata and Internet of Things” has not only exerted profound and comprehensive impact on people’s life, study and work, but also driven all-around social innovation and fostered new economy form. With the implementation of national bigdata development strategy, bigdata as the core assets and innovation power has been more and more widely recognized by entrepreneurs. It has not only deeply influenced the areas of manufacturing, service and intelligent city, but also exhibited greater ability in driving the development of business mode and product R&D.
Professor Xiao Ruiping from the Center for Life Sciences introduced the key myocardial and skeletal muscle specific protein, MG53 found in the research of metabolic syndrome and diabetes mechanism. This protein is a key molecule in the early insulin resistance and plays a key role in the development and progression of metabolic disorders such as obesity and type II diabetes. She hopes through the transformation of research and cooperation with the clinical centers can we truly connect research results from universities and clinical medial applications.
The Best Poster Award
Excellent Poster Award
During the break of report, the Organizing Committee of the Forum presented “The Best Poster Award” and “Excellent Poster Award” to the outstanding graduate students’ representatives and encouraged the students to actively participate in the frontier of interdisciplinary studies and strive to explore advanced academic achievements.
During the three special sessions in the afternoon, researchers and professors from different schools and areas, revolving around the three cutting-edge interdisciplinary areas, nanoscience, big data and biomedical, elaborated the research results and progress of multidisciplinary studies to provide more perspectives to teachers and students who attend the meeting. Graduates who won the “Excellent Poster Award” also made reports in terms of their own research results and were highly appraised by the present experts.
The successful inauguration of the First Graduate Student Forum for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies keeps in pace with the current trend of interdisciplinary integration, resource exchange and knowledge sharing. The forum aims to promote long-term cooperation and exchange in interdisciplinary academic research by cutting-edge interdisciplinary researchers. This forum promoted the scientific spirits, stimulated innovative thinking, fostered the integration of disciplines, deepened the communication of production and research, strengthened the cooperation between students and teachers, created a good academic atmosphere for research institutes and Peking University, and provided valuable assistance in cultivating a new generation of comprehensive scientific research talents and developing the new area of advanced interdisciplinary studies.
Written by: Liang Youle
Edited by: Wang Chengsiou
