A brief introduction to the Department of Earth Sciences

The Department of Earth Sciences Zhejiang University, one of the oldest earth science departments established in institutes of higher learning in China, has a long history. It was founded in 1936 as the Department of History and Geography by professor Zhu Kezhen who was a famous earth scientist and the former president of ZhejiangUniversity. By our successful endeavors for decades, a number of outstanding scientists were brought up in the department. Zhu Kezhen, Tu Changwang, Huang Bingwei, Ren Meie, Tan Qixiang, Chen Shupeng, Ye Duzheng, Shi Yafeng, Xie Yibing and Zhou Zhiyan et al. had once either studied or worked in the department and finally became academicians of Academy of Sciences. Recent years, a group of outstanding young sciences like Ding Zhongli, Fei Yingwei, who graduated from the department, become well-known geoscience scientists in the world.

The department’s field of study covers Geophysics, Geology, Geography, Environment Science, Atmospheric Science and Earth Information Science. There are one postdoctoral station in geology, five doctoral programs in structural geology, environmental science, cartography and geographic information systems, earth exploration and information technology, mineralogy, petrology and ore deposits, five undergraduate programs in geochemistry, atmospheric science, physical geography, humanity geography and history geography. It offers bachelor’s degrees in earth information science and technology, geographic information systems, atmospheric science, resources and environment and urban and countryside planning. Presently, the department has 63 faculty members, including 17 professors and 23 associate professors, in which 11 professors are qualified for doctoral student advisors and 22 professors and associate professors are qualified for masters’ student advisors. Academician Xu Shizhe, academician Dai Jinxing and lifelong professor Chen Qiaoyi teach in the department. Academicians Jin Xianglong, Tang Zhongli, Pan Delu and Su Jilan are jointly working in the department. There are 2 postdoctoral fellows, 76 doctoral candidates, 149 masters students, 147 engineering masters students, 98 part-time masters students and 320 undergraduate students working and studying in the Department.

The Department today operates five scientific institutes: Institute of Geology, Institute of Environment and Biogeochemistry, Institute of Space Information Technology, Institute of Resources and Environment and Urban and Countryside Planning, Institute of Geographic Information Science and Institute of Meteorology Information and Disaster Events Prediction. There are one Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Resources and Environment and Geographic Information System and one GeologicMuseum. Persisting in innovation, the Department has won numerous scientific awards including awards from Ministry of Education, awards from the Academy of Sciences, National Scientific and Technical Progress awards and Outstanding Teaching Material awards. Many research funds have been received since 2000, in which there are 23 research projects from the Natural Science Foundation of China, ‘973’, 863-High Tech Foundation, and National Key research project. In addition, there are 2 international cooperation projects, more than 100 provincial and ministries research projects. The total grant is up to 27 million RMB Yuan. More than 1000 academic papers, 10 professional monographs and 6 teaching materials have been published from 2000 to 2003. It has won 15 different kinds of scientific awards. The Department has applied for 20 new national patents. One doctoral dissertation has been nominated as National Appraisal of Doctoral Dissertations.

Structural Geology is a key discipline of Zhejiang province, which investigates the frontal problems of the distortion character of lithsphere and earth dynamics. The research aspects are orogenic belt and basin structure, earth physics and deep structures inversion, paleomagnetism and paleoplate reconstruction, geometry and kinematics of the distortion of upside crust and numerical modeling and virtual technology of geological processing, etc.