HISTORY AND STATUS QUO
Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), founded in 1960 and renamed from Nanjing Institute of Meteorology in 2004, was designated as one of the national key institutions of higher education in 1978. NUIST is co-constructed by the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) and the Ministry of Education. In 2017, NUIST is on the list of China’s “Double First-class” construction universities and disciplines as well as Jiangsu high level universities.
ADVANTAGEOUS DISCIPLINES
NUIST has a complete higher education system with undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral programmes as well as post-doctoral research centres. The ten disciplines of Geoscience, Engineering, Computer Science, Environmental Science & Ecology, Chemistry, Agricultural Science, Materials Science, Social Science, Mathematics and botany and zoology have entered top 1% ESI rankings, among which Geoscience, Computer Science, environmental science and ecology, and engineering have entered top 1‰. The discipline of Atmospheric Science ranks No.1 in the discipline evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Education of China and the 4th in the world according to US. News global rankings.
CAMPUS
The main campus of the university is located in the Jiangbei New Area of Nanjing, covering an area of over 2,000 mu. It has a distinctive and exemplary School of Software in the Jiangbei New Area Industrial Technology Innovation Park; an Integrated Circuit Outstanding Engineer College in the Pukou Economic Development Zone; university science and technology parks in Jiangbei New Area, Pukou District, Liuhe District, and Yuhuatai District; a Binjiang College (now transformed into Wuxi College) and an NUIST-Wuxi Joint Postgraduate Training Base in the Xidong New City of Wuxi; and a Jinniuhu Industry-Education Integration Park in the Jinniuhu New Area of Tianchang.
STUDENTS AND FACULTY
Currently, NUIST has about 39,700 full-time students, including 29,500 undergraduate students, 8,400 postgraduate students and 1,800 international students. It boasts a high-caliber faculty team, with over 2,400 full-time teachers and more than 800 part-time teachers. Among the full-time teachers, there are 2 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 26 overseas academicians, 2 members of the International Academy of Astronautics, 114 national-level talents, and over 500 provincial and ministerial-level talents. It also has 55 teaching and research teams at or above the provincial and ministerial level, such as the Huang Danian-style Teacher Team of National Colleges and Universities recognized by the Ministry of Education, the Innovative Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Double Innovation Team of Jiangsu Province.
The university has 25 professional colleges, as well as 10 high-level teaching institutions including the Raytheon College (co-established with the University of Reading, UK), the Waterford Institute (co-established with the Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland), the Changwang College (for top-tier talent cultivation), and the Longshan Academy (for large-category cultivation).
RESEARCH
The university is well-endowed with teaching and research resources:
It has been selected into the first batch of the Ministry of Education’s “Top Student Training Program 2.0” bases and the first batch of “National Talent Program” projects. It has also secured Jiangsu Provincial Basic Discipline Top Student Training Program 2.0 bases in Computer Science and Mathematics, and is among the first national modern industrial colleges, with a provincial industrial college for IoT intelligent terminals.
It hosts 1 national experimental teaching demonstration center, 1 national virtual simulation experimental teaching center, and 19 provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers. 30 programs are listed as national first-class undergraduate program construction sites, 16 as provincial ones; 17 programs have been approved for Phase III of the Jiangsu Higher Education Brand Program, 15 have passed engineering education professional certification, 2 have obtained international certification (by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) respectively); 5 programs are provincial industry-education integration brand programs, and 3 are provincial Outstanding Engineer Education Training Program 2.0 programs, with 1 provincial industry-education integration key base.
Focused on cultivating top innovative talents, it offers specialized classes such as the Atmospheric Science Elite Class, National University Consortium Class, Social Science Consortium Class, Huawei Experimental Class, Tencent Cloud Experimental Class, JD Experimental Class, Qi Anxin Experimental Class, and Haikangwei Experimental Class. It has 31 national first-class undergraduate courses, 55 provincial first-class courses, and 4 provincial industry-education integration first-class courses. It has won 1 national first-class textbook construction advanced individual award and 22 Jiangsu 14th Five-Year Plan textbooks.
It leads the National Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Change Adaptation, and participates in building the National Key Laboratory of Near-Space Environment Characteristics and Effects. It also has 61 provincial and ministerial-level scientific research platforms, including the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disasters, the International Joint Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Change, the Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center for Digital Forensics, the Ministry of Water Resources Key Laboratory of Hydro-meteorological Disaster Mechanism and Early Warning (Preparation), the China Meteorological Administration Key Laboratory of Aerosol and Cloud Precipitation, the China Meteorological Administration Key Open Laboratory of Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Sink (Cultivation), and the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Meteorological Disaster Early Warning and Assessment.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
NUIST has established cooperative relationship with over 170 overseas universities and colleges including Yale University, Harvard University, the University of Reading, the University of Manchester, South East Technological University, Carlton University, Delft University of Technology, Macquarie University and Monash University. NUIST was admitted to such programmes as Chinese Government Scholarship, the Confucius Institute Scholarship and Jiangsu Government Scholarship. To date, the WMO Regional Training Centre Nanjing at NUIST has trained over 6,000 senior meteorological and hydrological professionals for 160 countries and regions and become the world’s largest training centre of top quality.
Diversified cooperation modes with worldwide first-class universities is a characteristic of NUIST’s international cooperation, among which to establish joint research institutes is the most effective one. Typical examples include the NUIST- Harvard Joint Laboratory for Air Quality and Climate (JLAQC) and Yale - NUIST Atmospheric Environment Research Centre. JLAQC has gained a large number of creative scientific achievements. The cooperation with Yale University was reported as a model of Sino-US scientific research cooperation in the article titled Science superpowers find common ground by Nature. Besides joint laboratory (research center), there are many other cooperation methods like applying for joint scientific research programmes, jointly cultivating PHD students and postdoctors, and co-hosting international conferences,workshops or seminars.
Another successful cooperative mode is transnational education institutions and programmes, such as NUIST Reading Academy co-constructed with the University of Reading and NUIST Waterford Institute co-constructed with the South East Technological University.Moreover, there are various short-term students’ or teachers’ exchanging programmes between NUIST and our global partners.
International Association of Meteorological Education and Sciences (IAMES)
Environmental pollution and meteorological disasters have become common challenges faced by mankind. The International Association of Meteorological Education and Sciences (IAMES) was established in December 2020, which was initiated by NUIST and supported by more than 30 colleges, universities and scientific research institutions from over 20 countries.
IAMES is a non-governmental, non-profit, academic and scientific organization, dedicated to international promotion and coordination of scientific studies and education on meteorology (atmospheric science, hydrology, environmental science and other meteorology related disciplines). IAMES encourages the application of this knowledge to social needs, such as weather forecast, climate change, mitigation of natural hazards and environmental preservation.
IAMES is established to stimulate meteorological education and research, promote scientific and technological innovation, share high-quality platform resources, provide government policy consultation, and enhance the coordination ability to respond to major scientific issues.
There are 57 members in IMAES, such as NUIST, Nanjing University, Sun Yat-sen University, Princeton University, the University of Reading, Russian State Hydrometeorological University, Seoul National University and Cairo University. The establishment of IAMES got strong support from Chinese government (e.g. Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Commerce, China Meteorological Administration) and international organizations such as World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of WMO, sent a video in April, 2021 to show his support on behalf of WMO to congratulate the establishment of IAMES.
