Nankai University (NKU)
南开大学

China

Nankai University：A leading light from China

Since its founding in 1919, Nankai University has forged a strong academic reputation. Known as the ‘North Star’ among China’s higher education institutions, it has gathered many academic leaders over the years, and inspired generations of students, building a model for higher education in China. Aimed at making an impact on society, the university has produced many results that have brought significant socioeconomic benefits.

“We emphasize public values, capabilities, and innovation,” says Cao Xuetao, the university’s president. “These are integral to our Nankai spirit.” Now, under the ‘make Nankai excellent’ plan, these core ideals are guiding Nankai University toward further greatness.

Continually innovating

The dramatized story of a Nankai University pioneer has enthralled theatre audiences across China, and symbolizes the institution’s value to the country. The play is based on the story of its former president, Yang Shixian, a chemistry pioneer who spearheaded the development of China’s first-generation organic pesticides, and founded the Institute of Elemento-Organic Chemistry at Nankai. His influential work has drawn many talented young researchers, who in turn, cultivated many bright students, putting Nankai on the map as China’s ‘cradle of chemists’, a reputation it still enjoys.

Yang’s story typifies Nankai’s historic commitment to research that aims to address socioeconomic development needs. Later generations of Nankai researchers have taken up the mantle of useful research. The team led by chemist, Li Zhengming, has developed affordable green, effective pesticides that increase farming profits. Research results by Nankai researchers have also been used in technology to detect hazardous gases on spacecraft, such as Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, contributing to China’s manned space programme.

Other recent breakthroughs include the use of robotic technology in cell micro-manipulation, leading to the birth of the world’s first robot-cloned piglets; the development of organic solar cells that set a new record in sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency; the discovery of novel molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory immune responses, contributing to progresses in immunotherapy; efficient synthesis of a natural product that can be used to treat glioma, a category of brain tumour; and the development of automated bridge crane systems that have significantly improved work efficiency and safety.

These research results have put Nankai among the top 10 in China in the Nature Index annual tables released in 2019, and 47th among global academic institutions. Its chemistry is ranked 10th globally among academic institutions in the Nature Index. In 2018, Nankai had eight scholars selected as Clarivate ‘highly-cited researchers’ of the year. It is also a leading Chinese university in the number of citations in the recent 10 years of its cumulative papers published in Science Citation Indexed journals.

With 26 colleges and 92 undergraduate programmes, Nankai has one of the most comprehensive academic programmes in the country. While the university was selected into the national ‘double first-class’ initiative, its chemistry, material science and engineering, mathematics, statics and world history programmes were also designated as ‘double first-class’ subject areas. As a national research and teaching centre, Nankai also has 21 national-level key research institutions in natural sciences and seven in social sciences.

An active player at the forefront of scientific research, Nankai is making changes to improve its research capacities. As part of the ‘make Nankai excellent’ plan, the university is to capitalize on its existing strengths in natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, enhance its edge in engineering and biomedicine, and boost the development of emerging interdisciplinary fields, seeking to address national strategic needs.

Nankai University Custom Publishing on Nature: http://www.nature.com/collections/nku

1 December 2018 - 30 November 2019

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Nankai University (NKU) published between 1 December 2018 - 30 November 2019 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
601	241.52

Outputs by subject (Share)

Subject	Count	Share
Physical Sciences	163	47.08
Chemistry	422	181.27
Life Sciences	53	12.56
Earth & Environmental Sciences	36	21.29

Highlight of the month

Amine antidote for poisoned catalyst

A combination of two catalysts can overcome a sticky problem in the synthesis of amino acids.

Nitrogen-containing molecules called chiral amines are in strong demand as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are one major chiral amine family.

Simple structures called aliphatic amines should be ready starting materials for many amino acids, but aliphatic amines stick to the transition-metal catalyst needed to trigger the conversion, poisoning the catalyst and halting the reaction.

Replacing the transition-metal catalyst with two catalysts operating in tandem — a copper catalyst that initiates the conversion and a chiral organocatalyst that completes the task — overcomes this limitation, an all–Nankai University team has shown.

The discovery offers a potential strategy for other reactions in which strongly coordinating ‘sticky’ starting materials poison the catalyst, the researchers consider.

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