Sichuan University (SCU)
四川大学

China

Sichuan University is one of the earliest modern universities in China, with a history that can be traced back to the Sichuan Sino-Western School founded in 1896. The current Sichuan University is the result of two mergers, first with the former Chengdu University of Science and Technology and then with the former West China University of Medical Sciences. The expanded Sichuan University has three campuses --- Wangjiang, Huaxi and Jiang’an in the historical and cultural city of Chengdu, sprawling 7,050 mu (approximately 470 hectares).

With a long tradition in education, Sichuan University has, over the past 120 years, given rise to many academic heavyweights, industrial elites and leading administrators who are pillars of the society. Its famous alumni include Zhu De, one of the founding fathers of the People’s Republic of China, and Yang Shangkun, China’s former president, as well as Guo Moruo and Ba Jin, renowned masters of modern Chinese literature, who have all once studied at Sichuan University. Moreover, over 50 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) are Sichuan University alumni.

Currently, the university is dedicated to cultivating globally competitive innovators. It has more than 37,000 full-time undergraduate students and 20,000-plus master and PhD candidates, as well as nearly 3,000 international students.

The university offers a comprehensive range of disciplines to its students, with 33 colleges, covering 12 subject areas, such as humanities, science, engineering and medicine. According to Thomson Reuters’ Essential Science Indicators (ESI), 13 of its disciplines, including chemistry, clinical medicine, engineering, pharmacology and toxicology, biology and biochemistry, mathematics, physics, neuroscience and behavioral science, molecular biology and genetics, agricultural sciences, plant and animal sciences and social science are ranked among the global top 1%. Particularly, chemistry is ranked among top 1‰ globally.

With a strong faculty team of 5,238 full-time faculty members, including 1,051 full professors, 1,230 associate professors and 15 CAS and CAE academicians, Sichuan University has built robust research programs, having made a series of representative research achievements. For example, Feng Xiaoming’s catalytic asymmetric Roskamp reaction provided a new method for the synthesis of chiral compounds. Studies on carbon capture and utilization (CCU) and CO2-mineralization are promoting the rise of a new energy industry in China and even globally. Cross-disciplinary studies on translational medicine led to an innovative technological chain of gene discovery – drug R&D – clinical treatment. In 2014 alone, 3,647 papers were published in journals listed in the Science Citation Index (SCI). Based on the Nature Index data in 2014, Sichuan University is ranked at 106th among global academic institutions.

The university’s research strength is also demonstrated in 13 national-level research bases and four state-level international science and technology cooperation bases. Having achieved many national-level science and technology awards, the university has already become a major driver of the socioeconomic development in western China.

Looking forward, Sichuan University is committed to making greater contributions to the progress of society and human civilization.

Find Sichuan University’s custom publishing on Nature

1 August 2017 - 31 July 2018

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Sichuan University (SCU) published between 1 August 2017 - 31 July 2018 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.

AC	FC
260	149.19

Outputs by subject (FC)

Subject	AC	FC
Chemistry	167	109.35
Life Sciences	46	15.38
Physical Sciences	56	27.27
Earth & Environmental Sciences	5	1.89

Highlight of the month

Tackling tumours with lasers and salmonella

© SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty

Heating bacteria with laser beams could be used to kill cancer cells.

The genetically modified and safe form salmonella VNP20009 is drawn to the oxygen-deprived centre of tumours and could be useful in cancer biotherapy, which uses living organisms to fight diseases. However, its anticancer activity in animals has not been replicated in humans. A team, including researchers from Sichuan University, partially coated VNP20009 with polydopamine — a biodegradable compound that heats up under electromagnetic radiation. They then injected the modified microbe into mice with skin cancer and observed it accumulate in tumours.

The team shone an infrared laser beam into the tumour. This heated up the polydopamine, destroying the surrounding cancer cells. These mice survived two to four times longer than mice treated with either pure VNP20009 and laser heating or the coated version without heating.

This approach could improve the precision and safety of combination therapies.

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