Han Ximin

SHENZHEN Grubbs Research Institute, a research institute named after Robert H. Grubbs, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, was inaugurated at Shenzhen Civic Center in Futian District yesterday.

The institute, the first of its kind in China to be named after a Nobel laureate, is set to be a world-leading research center in new pharmaceuticals, new materials and new energy resources.

Grubbs, professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in the United States and co-recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on olefin metathesis, will be dean of the institute, which is based at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUStech).

Grubbs will work at least one month a year at the institute.

“It is a wonderful opportunity because everything is starting new,” said Grubbs.

“New faculty, new buildings and a new campus. The focus of the institute will be catalysts, which are very important in many fields such as the petroleum and chemical industry, new materials and new energy,” he said.

The institute will be a city-oriented, national and even a worldwide platform providing cutting-edge scientific research services. It will be managed by SUSTech and directed by a board of directors.

In the early stages, the funding of the institute will be provided by the Shenzhen city government. Its laboratory standards, quality and instrumentation will be built according to the most cutting-edge research platforms worldwide.

Chen Shiyi, president of SUSTech, said he hoped the institute will attract top talent in science and will contribute to Shenzhen’s higher learning, economic development and industrial upgrading.

SUStech has made remarkable achievements in attracting talent in recent years. The university was recently awarded 2.9 million yuan (US$432,836) by the city government for talent introduction work.