The School of Science of WUST, since its foundation, has been promoting the principles of “Education First, Quality Essential, Construction Steadfast, Development Energetic” holding the lead position in disciplined construction, establishing a core position in teaching and research.
The school is composed of the following departments: Mathematics and Statistics, Applied Physics, and Engineering Mechanics. Accordingly there are four undergraduate majors namely Statistics, Information and Computational Science, Material Physics, and Engineering Mechanics. It has a first-level master program in System Science, three co-construction Ph.D. programs in Systems Engineering, Material Engineering, and Mining Engineering; five first-level master programs in Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Mechanics and System Science; and 19 second-level master programs. Among its multiple laboratories, the College Physics Experimental Teaching Center and Physics Experiment Teaching Center Laboratory are recognized as exemplary centers for experiment teaching in Hubei Province; the Systems Science in the Metallurgical Process Laboratory is a Hubei Key Laboratory. Presently the school has one key discipline and three provincial excellent courses. Sixteen monographs and textbooks have been published; nine national and provincial education reform programs have been instituted; six prizes of teaching achievement in Hubei Province and China Ministry of Education have been awarded to our faculty.
The core competitiveness of the school is strengthened continually by its abundant human resources of excellent teachers. Currently the school is the employer of a staff body of 146, over 94 percent of which are holders of master’s or Ph.D. degrees. Among the faculty there are 8 doctoral supervisors, 27 professors; one Foreign Academician of Russian Academy of Engineering, two national experts with outstanding contributions, two Hubei famous teachers, two provincial experts with outstanding contributions, six excellent teachers of the Baosteel Education Fund, two “CHUTIAN” Scholars, four provincial outstanding teachers, two university excellent teachers, two teachers receiving special government allowances from the State Council and two from the provincial government. In addition, there are more than ten staff members holding concurrent posts as vice-chairmen or executive directors in various provincial academic organizations.
The school has achieved great results in scientific research. In recent years, several research terms have been granted one National Technological Innovation Award, one National Science and Technology Progress Award, eight Provincial Science and Technological Advancement Awards and six Provincial Natural Sciences Prizes; the school has undertaken two key projects and eleven general projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, more than twenty projects supported by provincial foundation and more than twenty horizontal scientific research projects. The scientific research funds amount to more than 20 million RMB.
The school highly values the development of students’ scientific and technological capacities for innovation. In recent years, with the guidance of the school, students who have taken part in the International Modeling Mathematical Contest have won two international second prizes, three national first prizes, ten second prizes, one third prize, and thirteen provincial prizes. Students who have participated in English Contests have won two national first prizes, four second prizes, four third prizes, and seven honorable mentions. Students who have participated in the Zhou Peiyuan Mechanics Competition have won two provincial third prizes.
Since its establishment, the school has created a comprehensive and constructive disciplinary system, a development system for teachers, undergraduates, and postgraduates with master’s and Ph.D. degrees in education. Presently the students amount to about 1000 in each category. The school has graduated more than 1500 science-application-oriented professionals till now. Among the alumni of the school there is a group of famous scholars and entrepreneurs, such as the Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor Xie Xianqi, the internationally renowned mathematician Professor Zhang Gaoyong, Professor Zhou Jiazu, and Shenzhen SAST General Manager Li Rongze. Additionally, there are more than ten alumni working as managers in enterprises.
The school has established cooperative relations with eight universities in the US, the UK, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Korea, and other countries, with student exchanges for undergraduates and postgraduates with famous universities abroad at regular intervals. The school has held large-scale international academic seminars on “The Theory of Convex Bodies and Related Tasks” twice, in which many top international experts took part and presented papers. Additionally, the school has created a close communication and cooperation with other Schools of Science in more than sixty domestic universities.
Currently the school is striving to realize the strategic targets established for the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” in the development of education, striving to raise the study of science to a higher domestic level.