The school of earth and space science of Peking University was set up on October 26th, 2001. The newly established school comprises the former department of geology, solid earth physics of the geophysics department, department of space physics, institute of remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS) from the department of urban and environmental sciences in Peking University.
It offers five undergraduate specialties, including geology, geochemistry, solid earth physics, space science and technology as well as geographic information system, and has three doctor’s or master’s degree authorization centres on first class disciplines, four post-doctoral mobile stations on geology, geophysics and geology. The school has among its faculty 51 professors, including seven academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences, five Changjiang Scholarship professors, and forty associate professors. It has one national talent training centre on basic sciences ( in the field of geology ), one innovation group awarded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( in the field of geophysics ), three national key disciplines, which are structural geology, solic earth physics and geographic information system, one key laboratory under the Ministry of Education ( in the sphere of orogenic belt and crustal evolution ), one key laboratory of Beijing city ( in the sphere of spatial information integration and application of 3S projects, which are remote sensing, geographic information system and global positioning system ) and a key discipline of Beijing city, namely, space physics. As a major talent training center in geosciences in China and a significant force with which Peking University is striving to evolve into a world-class university, the school is charged with the important task of supplying for the country’s modernization drive senior professionals in geology, geophysics, space science, remote sensing, geographic information system, surveying and mapping science and technology and other domains.
Since the founding of the new China, the school has brought up for the country 50-odd academicians. Leading scholars of their time like Wang Lie, Ding Wenjiang and Li Siguang had all once taught in this school, which has drawn famous masters and turned out talented students in large numbers. Geophysics is a newly-emerging science. The department of geophysics of Peking University was founded in January, 1959. In the preliminary stage after the foundation of the department, famous geophysicist of the older generation in our country like Fu Chengyi, Gu Gongxu and Wang Zichang had one after another assumed the post of chief of physics and taken charge in the formulation of the subject’s teaching plan and research directions. Over the past forty years, the department has produced for the country a large amount of outstanding scientist, engineering technologist and senior management specialists, who have made a valuable contribution to seismic monitoring, geophics, spatial environment and application as well as other spheres. The institute of remote sensing of Peking University, set up in 1983, is among the earlist research and teaching units in China engaged in the theoretical research and technological application of remote sensing, and has developed disciplinary advantage in its theoretical research, development and teaching in fields like technology of remote sensing and geo-information system. At present, the institute of remote sensing offers two specialties, one being cartography and geography information system and the other photogrammetry and remote sensing. It has cultivated more than one hundred graduate students, held at home at least 40 training courses in remote sensing and geo-information system and brought up for the country a large number of high-level professionals in remote sensing and geographic information system.
The school of earth and space sciences of Peking University, formed on the basis of several departments and institutes that have scored brilliant accomplishment in several domains related to geoscience, has a fine academic and educational tradition and will carry it on. In planning for and the development of the school, attention will be paid to giving full play to its own developing conditions and its advantage in interdisciplinary and subject integration so as to realize alliance between top-quality departments as well as reorganization and optimum allocation in resource of education and research. With the founding of the school as a pivot, its faculty members and students, confident and from a high starting point, are striving to turn it into a talent training and scientific research centre in the field of earth and space sciences, a centre that attracts international attention. We believe that with support from all sections of the society and by concerted effort of its faculty, the school, with its glorious traditions, will prosper and score more brilliant achievements, while playing a more significant role in the national construction and society.
For more details, please refer to:
http://sess.pku.edu.cn
