Good morning!

Thank you for coming to the First China Symposium on Theoretical Computer Science. I’d like to welcome you all and in particular, I’d like to thank the distinguished foreign guests who will be speaking at the symposium and who have come a long way. Let’s all give them a big round of applause at first.

Let me say a few words about this symposium. Two years ago, we started the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science in Tsinghua University for the purpose of promoting theoretical computer science research and also nurturing young talents in this area. And this is very important for Tsinghua University and in fact for China, because at Tsinghua University we have responsibility of spearheading the efforts to elevate the Chinese universities into first-rate research universities.

And as part of our efforts in the Institute, we have decided to start two series of scientific symposium. And one of the series is this one here, the China Symposium. This is the first time that this symposium is held. And we have invited 20 distinguished leaders in the area of theoretical computer science to give us, especially to our students an overview of the field, so that to get a direct look from the leaders of this area, so that they can hear directly from the masters. And I hope that all of you will take from this experience to not only get a look of how in this very exciting field what people are doing, but also we’ll learn from their lectures, the spirit and the sense of wonder of the true scientists.

I’m going to ask Professor Frances Yao to start the next session. I wish you all a wonderful experience.