百廿芳华 全球同庆 | 《Nature》发布苏州大学120周年校庆特刊
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4月16日，《Nature》发布苏州大学120周年校庆特刊。
在苏州大学即将迎来120周年校庆之际，熊思东校长接受了世界顶尖学术期刊《Nature》特刊专题访谈，他以“Soochow University’s 120 Years of Achievements”为题，从学校如何在传承中实现创新发展、如何践行顶天立地发展战略、如何内外兼修提升综合实力、如何面向未来培养人才、如何在全球语境中界定自我、如何共启愿景以保持强势发展劲头等六个方面，向《Nature》全球读者介绍了苏州大学在120年办学历程中的治校理念、发展成就和前景蓝图。
熊思东校长接受《Nature》校庆特刊专访
此外，《Nature》校庆特刊还刊登了苏州大学在纳米科学、放射医学与防护学、纺织与服装工程学、血液学、中国特色城镇化研究及吴文化研究等一流学科和重点领域的特色发展及其重要创新成果。
纳米科学研究
放射医学与防护学研究
纺织与服装工程学研究
血液学研究
中国特色城镇化研究及吴文化研究
熊思东校长通过《Nature》杂志
介绍苏州大学：
如何在传承与创新中建设
让人民满意的高水平大学
以下为访谈原文：
2020 marks the 120th anniversary of the founding of Soochow University (SU) in Suzhou, People's Republic of China. An interview with its president, Sidong Xiong, a biologist, outlines the university’s legacy, development strategy, vision and blueprint for future success.
SU EMBRACES TRADITION AND INNOVATION.
Q: Can you outline the university's evolution?
SU’s history and legacy of entrepreneurship are interwoven with local culture. The historic city of Suzhou was founded by an enterprising forefather of Northwest China who gave up his throne to explore the Jiangnan land around 1300 BC. Around 1900, innovative missionary intellectuals such as Young John Allen and David Lawrence Anderson introduced Western ideas of higher education, and the university was founded modelling a modern Western university with a central tenet of entrepreneurship.
Following its motto of ‘Unto a full grown man’, SU is committed to revitalizing the nation through education. Three milestone changes define its evolution. The first took place after the founding of the People’s Republic of China with the institutions refashioning into a teachers’ college, marking a stronger tie with its cultural roots. The second was its transformation into a comprehensive university after the national reform. The third strategic change occurred as a result of its inclusion by China’s Double First-Class Initiative in the new era. Over the past 120 years, SU has produced more than 500,000 graduates, active and acknowledged in all walks of life globally.
SU DEFINES ITSELF BY FRONTIER RESEARCH AND SERVICE FOR THE NATIONAL AND LOCAL COMMUNITY.
Q：How do you interpret ‘Ding Tian Li Di’, the university’s ‘sky and ground’ strategy?
A metaphor may help. SU is a big tree. A tree grows upwards with its roots deep in the ground. We, too, reach upwards in our endeavour in key frontier areas such as materials, biology, medicine, optoelectronics, AI, and social governance. We try to attract and introduce talents with international influence, and working with strong partners at home and abroad, we have built many flagship platforms and international labs including the CAM-SU Genetic Research Center and the Institute for Advanced Study. Meanwhile, we are firmly grounded in China’s fundamental realities, national and local needs. For instance, our 19 affiliated hospitals deliver medical services to more than 20 million patients annually. In short, we reach up in leading frontier areas of research and expand our social involvement and contribution.
SU IS DRIVEN BY HARD AND SOFT POWER.
Q: How does SU build its comprehensive strength?
SU needs to have more comprehensive strength, both hard and soft. Its tangible strength depends on its 3,000-plus professors, its huge body of excellent students aiming high and working hard, and its sufficient advanced facilities such as the ‘cloud university’. The essence of strength lies in talents, which are the primary driver of growth and key to future success. We have been introducing talents of international vision and visibility from across the globe, and our effort is encouraging. This growing talent pool boosts our research innovation. According to Lens Score, SU is a leader in innovation among Chinese universities. At the same time, it promotes its culture and modern governance, which are intrinsic to soft power. We carry forward the university’s tradition and values, thus, creating a stronger tie of legacy and moral standards within the SU community. We also optimize university governance by rules and norms. Our effort in both tangible and intangible aspects helps to empower the university.
SU DEVELOPS EMINENT INDIVIDUALS.
Q: How do you plan and implement the cultivation of professional individuals?
The university is a passage to the future. A fundamental mission is to prepare individuals in this regard. With knowledge explosion, skills ‘expire’ faster than ever. We must think outside the box and beyond the times. There is an imminent demand for high calibre, future-oriented professionals. To better equip students with the right skills and vision, we try to create a great learning space, enrich their learning experiences, and lead them to navigate across and even beyond domains of knowledge with positive values, critical thinking, analytical skills, and global perspectives—all needed to rise to future challenges. Meanwhile, we also emphasize the development of individuals for this era, which has its specific practical needs.To this end, we strengthen university-industry synergy, prepare professionals for the leading and pillar industries, and offer hands-on learning experiences through cooperative and outreach programmes.
SU PLACES ITSELF IN A GREATER, GLOBAL CONTEXT.
Q: What measures have you taken to make this ‘local’ university a more global one?
I would like to define SU as ‘glocal’, or local and global. It is local in its rootedness in Chinese culture, realities, needs and pursuits. However, no aspiring university can afford to confine itself to its national boundaries since the world is increasingly a community with a shared future. Some of our measures to go global include subjecting our undertakings to international standards, further strengthening the current 222 international cooperative programmes, and experimenting with new ways of partnership. Apart from our ‘coming in’ strategy in recruitment of international faculty and students, with 3,310 international students from 72 countries, we also practise a ‘going out’ strategy, branching out worldwide via overseas campuses (including Soochow University in Laos ), platforms, international alliances, and our CAMP (channel, ability, motivation, and program) initiative.
SU MAINTAINS A STRONG TRAJECTORY.
Q: How do you define and achieve the vision of the university?
Our vision is to build an inclusive, responsible, and internationally visible world-class research university committed to the sustainable development goals of humanity. It depends much on our management of four relationships. The first is the relationship between the pace of growth and quality. We need to stay cautious in accelerating the university’s growth. Rather than following a less sound path of development, we try to inject fresh vitality and drive to sustain development. The second is the balance between change and continuity. While we acknowledge the need to respond to the changing needs of society, we value our tradition and legacy. The third is the integration between the internal driver and external push, the internal driver being excellence in teaching and research. The fourth is the part-whole relationship. We shall keep the momentum of our leading areas while striving towards an all-around development of SU as a whole.If these relationships are handled properly, SU will be able to maintain its momentous trajectory and be recognized in China and far beyond.
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苏州大学新媒体中心
素材来源：校长办公室、国际合作交流处
编辑：李怡晓
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