On the afternoon of September 12, IIIS Opening Ceremony took place in the Lecture Hall, Main Building of Tsinghua University. The Ceremony was hosted by Assis. Prof. Yunfei Pu, mentor of QI class 2021, and attended by Prof. Andrew Yao, IIIS Dean, Prof. Bin Yang, Vice President of Tsinghua University, and IIIS faculties, together with the incoming 86 undergraduate students and 61 graduate students.

In welcoming the students, Prof. Yao congratulated them on beginning their IIIS academic journeys and then looked backward on the development of the institute in the past decade. He emphasized that IIIS would support and encourage the students to explore new things, embrace connection and start their own academic pursuit here. In the end, Prof. Yao also urged the faculties to do pioneering work and make commitment to being positive forces for the university’s growth.

In his address, Vice President Bin Yang greeted the incoming students on behalf of the University with an appreciation of the student speakers’ remarks. He noted the achievements IIIS had made and wished the institute would cultivate more talents who “innovated the future” in the next ten years.

The ceremony also included remarks from IIIS Assis. Prof. Yang Gao, undergraduate student Shuixiunan Zhang, graduate students Yihang Hu and Ling Pan, which offered another opportunity for shared learning and community building.

During the ceremony, Yao Award 2021 was granted to recognize 12 outstanding Yao Class students. International students also attended the ceremony remotely because of the pandemic.

(By Yuying Chang, Photo by Xiang Li)