Qian Xuhong - President of East China Normal University

QIAN Xuhong was born in 1962 and a native of Baoying County in East China’s Jiangsu Province. Qian is the 8th president of  ECNU. He is a Changjiang Scholar – China’s highest academic award issued to an individual in higher education, chief scientist of the National Basic Research Priorities Program (also known as the 973 Program), an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), an adviser of the Department of Chemical Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation, a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry of the United Kingdom, chairman of the Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering (APCCHE), and academic ambassador of AVH (meaning the Humboldt Foundation) of Germany.

Education & Work Experience

Qian received a bachelor’s degree at East China University of Chemical Technology, predecessor of East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), in 1982 and a Ph. D. in engineering at the same university in 1988. He was an associate researcher with the Lamar University of the United States from 1989 to 1990 and an AVH postdoctor at the University of Würzburg from 1990 to 1991. He returned to China and started his career as a teacher at ECUST in 1992. Until 2000, he had been a lecturer, associate professor and professor, and took the posts as director of the Fine Chemical Department, head of the Pharmaceutical Chemical Institute, and president assistant. He acted as vice president of the university from 1996 to 2000. He was hired as Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor by Dalian University of Technology from 2000 to 2004. He was sworn in as president of ECUST in July 2004 and had been at the helm until March 2015. He was elected to be a CAE academician in 2011. He was a Shanghai lawmaker from 2007 to 2017. He resigned as ECUST president in April 2015 to focus on research before being transferred to take office as president and deputy Party chief of ECNU in January this year.

Academic Background

Qian has been specializing in eco-friendly pesticides and functional dyes research and application. He has successfully developed key green efficient preparation technologies, including polyfluoro aromatic acid -- a core intermediate of floxacin, eco-friendly pesticides such as paramonitrite heterocyclic nicotine insecticides and perfluoroalkoxy plant health activators that create a new mechanism and possess a unique performance, as well as heterocyclic fluorescent dyes such as naphthalimide that realizes the integration of  molecular recognition sensing and detection and separation. He also proposed and implemented concepts and methods of chemical biotechnology and engineering.

Qian’s honors include three first prizes of the Ministry of Education Science and Technology Progress Award, a first prize of Shanghai Natural Science Award, and a second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award for his role as first accomplisher of the award-winning projects. He held China patents for more than 20 inventions with him as the first and second inventor and 15 international patents granted by the United States, Japan and European countries. He has had 350-plus articles published with more than 8,000 citations. Ten of his representing articles recorded over 2,500 citations.