Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning!

On behalf of Tsinghua University, I warmly welcome you to the symposium. We are proud to being able to host perhaps the most exciting gathering in the exciting area of theoretical computer science at the beginning of 2010. And I’m happy to see that the world’s top experts and those most talented young students in the field are coming here to share your latest findings with us.

Tsinghua University has a long tradition in science. About 35% of the members of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as well as the Nobel laureates C.N. Yang and T.D. Li are Tsinghua alumni. Each year, through the National College Entrance Exam, about 70% of top 100 students of every province in science are enrolled by Tsinghua University to pursue higher education. Now Tsinghua is committed in further strengthen its teaching and research, especially by attracting distinguished academic talents from all over the world with the hope to become one of world-class universities in the near future.

Professor Andrew Yao, the Chairman and Director of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science of Tsinghua University has been dedicated in promoting computer science education and research in Tsinghua, and also in China. In the past six years, he and his team have made great breakthrough in cutting-edge research and have explored a successful model to educate the future scientists in China. And I do think that your profound thought and kind participation will be very helpful not only to the symposium, but also to the development of ITCS and Tsinghua University.