Ocean University of China(OUC), marks its 90th anniversary this fall, with faculty, undergraduates, alumni, as well as visitors from across the globe gathering together to celebrate its rich history and vibrant present, in East China's Qingdao city.

Looking forward to the future, the university is also ready to churn out achievements to benefit the country and the world with transformative ideas and pioneering talents. Throughout the past 90 years, it has grown from the first modern university in Shandong established by the Chinese to offer Bachelors degrees, to the most prominent comprehensive university featuring marine-related disciplines in China.

In 1924, OUC was built on Bismarck Barracks left by German colonists. Known as Qingdao Private College, it starts the history of higher education for the newly born coastal city.

From then, it went through several periods, from private to state, and then from Shandong University to Shandong Oceanography College, Ocean University of Qingdao and finally was transformed into Ocean University of China in 2002.

In the 1930s, marine-featured development has taken shape in the university with majors including oceanic hydro-meteorology, aquatic fishery, marine physics, marine chemistry, marine biology to geography.

Today, information technology, engineering, environment, food majors are also thriving, and the emerging inter-discipline subjects, such as marine medicine and marine environment, are becoming their new highlights. With addition of many humanities disciplines, OUC is now a comprehensive university with balanced majors and subjects.

The original OUC campus was built on an old military camp on Xiaoyushan, or Little Fish Hill. In 1994, it opened the Fushan campus in the rising new urban area in east Qingdao, and recently in 2006, its third campus, which is the most magnificent one, was put in operation in Laoshan district, also a core area of the so called Blue Silicon Valley – Qingdao's high tech engine for marine economy.

With growth in size, the university also gains momentum with increasing scientific research and talent developing capability.

The university was approved as one of the national key universities included in the list of "Project 985" (for China's top 39 universities) in 2001. It has 81 academic disciplines (majors) authorized to offer doctoral degrees, 12 post-doctoral research programs and it now ranks within the top one percent in eight academic areas, including Plant and Animal Science, Earth Science etc, according to data derived from the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) released in July 2013.

Over the past 90 years, more than 100 thousand talents have graduated from OUC and become the pillar of nation.

The university has cultivated Luo Ronghuan, marshal of People's Republic of China, 12 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering, and two director generals of the State Oceanic Administration. Other alumini that have graced the university include Dong Zhaoqian, the first Chinese scientist that explored Antarctica, Jiang Jialun, the first Chinese who conducted their field trip in Antarctica on foot, Zhao Jinping, the first Chinese scientist who went explorations both in Antarctica and Arctic, Zhang Juanjuan, the Olympic champion archer, as well as scientists working on deep sea and space technology, as well as the frontline of marine environmental and hydro-meteorological forecasting and sea farming.

Cooperating with other research institutes, it has built China's first Institute of Marine Drugs, developed China's first institution (major) engaged in marine pharmaceutical research and China's first National Research Center for Marine Pharmaceutical Engineering, and also the National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology.

R&D Achievements

With rich resources and strong innovation force, it has become China's cradle of marine scientific breakthroughs. In the past ten years, it has undertaken major research programs included in the National Basic Research Program (also called the Program 973 ) and won various national scientific prizes.

In 1980s, it developed China's first marine drug PSS, which is still used to treat hyperlipemia nowadays. In 2009, Guan Huashi, former president of OUC, led the development of oceanographic features of oligosaccharides preparation technology (Sugar Library Building) and won China's first National Award for Technological Invention in the bio-pharmacy. The technology later led to the invention of the new Anti- Alzheimer drug "971" in 2012.

In 2004, Professor Song Weibo's research and achievements in the taxology of ciliatologist, a big group in the protozoa, has won the State natural Science Award. His discovery has brought us closer to the mystery of cell division and differentiation, a rudimental life phenomenon. In the same year, Professor Li Huajun's team has developed the Structural Condition Assessment and Engineering Treatment of an Offshore Platform with Excessive vibration and won the National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2011, OUC's research teams won another three State natural Science Awards for their achievements in white spot syndrome virus(WSSV), utilization of marine protein, and offshore engineering construction safety.

The university has also founded two Innovative Research Groups that have been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), one of which is led by Professor Wu Lixin, and his team is actively engaged in the research of variations in ocean dynamic processes and their impact on climate change. Their discovery includes the energy transfer and mixing in the deep Southern Ocean, enhanced warming over the Global Subtropical Western Boundary Currents, new scientific evidence about the Walker Circulation weakening Walker. The other one is led by Professor Zhao Meixun, and it focuses on organic carbon cycle in the ocean and its responses to marine ecosystem changes and evolution. Their findings reveal that the China marginal seas are a major carbon sink by organic carbon burial in sediments. Recently, organic carbon burial has increased in responses to the increased marine productivity and increased land organic carbon transport to the seas.

Apart from cutting edge achievements in basic science, OUC has helped lead the revolution in China's aquaculture, and the country is now the largest aquatic products export country. It has also developed many technologies and applied them in various marine related industries and environmental problems such as the summer algae outburst in the Yellow Sea.

In its future development, OUC is committed to advancing and enriching the essence of the university while adhering to the guiding principle that academic affairs are managed by professors. The university will step up its efforts to enhance international cooperation as well as collaboration with relevant government departments and industrial sectors in a bid to educate more topnotch professionals and create more academic achievements so as to better serve the sustainable ocean development and the country and benefit the human beings.

The author is the president of Ocean University of China 

(From China Daily, 2014-11-07)