In China, Shi Yigong is an Internet celebrity scientist who is very famous in the scientific research and higher education circles. Born in 1967, Shi Yigong is only 54 years old so far. However, as early as 2013, Shi Yigong, who was only 46 years old, became an academician of the "three academies" within a year: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Moreover, Shi Yigong set a record of serving as 2 academicians in 5 days: he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on April 25, 2013, and a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences on April 30.
Why can Shi Yigong become an academician of the Three Academies? The reason is that he is indeed very powerful in scientific research. In the field of life science research, Shi Yigong is recognized as a top scientist. Shi Yigong, who graduated from Tsinghua University, successively entered the United States to pursue a doctorate and postdoctoral research, and even became a tenured professor in Princeton in the United States, but eventually chose to return to Tsinghua University and become the dean of the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University, and later became the assistant president of Tsinghua University, and even served as the vice president of Tsinghua University.
What is the level of Vice President of Tsinghua University? The administrative level of Tsinghua University is at the vice-ministerial level, so the president of Tsinghua University is a leading cadre at the vice ministerial level, the executive vice president of Tsinghua University is a leading cadre at the level of the main department, and the vice president of Tsinghua University is at least a leading cadre at the deputy department level. Shi Yigong became vice president of Tsinghua University in 2015 at the age of 48. In China, the 48-year-old can become a leading cadre at the deputy department level, which can be regarded as "prosperous and promising".
However, just over 2 years after becoming the vice president of Tsinghua University, Shi Yigong chose to resign as vice president of Tsinghua University and gave up the treatment of "deputy department level". Why is that? The reason is that he is going to prepare for the establishment of Westlake University and serve as the first dean of Westlake University.
Westlake University is a new type of higher education institution organized by social forces and supported by the state. To put it more bluntly, Westlake University is a private university. The vice president of Tsinghua University who put a good job is not right, but he wants to run to west lake university as a private university as the president, so he loses the deputy department level, is it worth it? What did Shi Yigong, who became the president of Westlake University, get?
Shi Yigong got, first of all, of course, the identity of the president of the university. Shi Yigong, the vice president of Tsinghua University, although he has an administrative level, is not the first leader of Tsinghua University, not even the second in command. Because Tsinghua University not only has a president, but also an executive vice president, and even a party secretary and a deputy secretary of the party committee. As a vice principal, it seems to be of a high level, but in fact, the right to speak is not as much as we think.
After becoming the president of Westlake University, Shi Yigong was granted the status of the top administrator of the university. What is the point of being a university president? The simplest meaning is that it can "decide". The implementation of the principal responsibility system under the leadership of the board of directors of Westlake University can enable Shi Yigong to better realize his ambitions and promote Westlake University to gather first-class teachers, create first-class disciplines, cultivate first-class talents, and produce first-class results.
Is Shi Yigong's choice worth it? In just a few years, Westlake University has more than 100 outstanding academic talents from all over the world, and has established more than 100 world-leading basic and applied research laboratories on campus, and The Zhou Qiang team of Westlake University has just won the first prize of the 2020 Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Award. Obviously, Shi Yigong's choice is certainly worth it. #施一公 #