Zhang Wei, former chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Colorado Boulder, has returned to China to join Great Bay University (GBU) as a full-time faculty member.
Zhang, who will be the deputy dean and chair professor of GBU’s physical sciences school, attended a hiring ceremony at the university’s Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on July 2.
He was presented with the appointment letter by GBU president Tian Gang, who is also a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“Professor Zhang has long been engaged in scientific research and discipline construction at overseas high-level research universities,” Tian said at the ceremony.
“The fact that such an internationally outstanding young talent has chosen to come to the university is not only a recognition of the school’s educational philosophy and development direction, but also further strengthens the university’s confidence in building a high-level teaching staff.”
Zhang said he was motivated to return to China by family and research opportunities. The death of his father in 2020, and pandemic travel restrictions “had a profound effect” on him, he said in an email.
“Now that my mother is getting older, I hope that in the next stage of my life, I can be closer to her and spend more time with her,” he wrote.