On the morning of April 21, a symposium to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Gao Jingde was held in the reception hall of the main building of Tsinghua University. The teachers and students attending the symposium shared the memory of Comrade Gao Jingde’s outstanding contributions to the development of the university and the country, and inheriting and learning his noble style. Qiu Yong, secretary of the university party committee, attended the symposium and delivered a speech. Wang Guangqian, vice president and vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic League, Xiang Botao, deputy secretary of the university party committee, Fang Huijian and He Meiying, former secretaries of the university party committee, and Gu Binglin, former president of the university, attended the symposium. Vice President Zeng Rong presided over the symposium.

Comrade Gao Jingde is an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, an outstanding electrical engineering scientist, and a famous educator. He was a member of the Standing Committee of the 8th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a standing member of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League. He was the president of Tsinghua University from 1983 to 1988. Comrade Gao Jingde has made a series of major scientific research achievements in the field of electrical engineering, and has cultivated a high-level teaching and research team. During his tenure as president, he put forward the university running policy of “focusing on improvement and developing while improving”, and established the goal of building a world-class university together with the university’s leadership team. He has also created a series of new achievements in running the university to promote education reform in the critical period of university development. Comrade Gao Jingde devoted his life to the construction and development of Tsinghua University and to the progress of China’s education and science and technology.

Qiu Yong delivered a speech

Qiu Yong said that General Secretary Xi Jinping, in his important speech on his visit to the school last year, fully affirmed Tsinghua’s 110 years of development achievements and university running experience, and encouraged teachers to become “great teachers” and models for students to learn, work and be a person, and promote the growth of students into comprehensively developed people. A good university must have a good tradition, and a good university must also have “great teachers”. Comrade Gao Jingde is a “great teacher” in Tsinghua University.

Qiu Yong said that Comrade Gao Jingde, with his sincere love for the party and the people, worked diligently and selflessly for China’s higher education and scientific and technological undertakings, and he is a model of education and selfless dedication, a model of unity, integrity and self-discipline. Comrade Gao Jingde has been diligently seeking truth and seeking far-reaching actions throughout his life. He is simple on the outside, and his sincerity is true. He has made outstanding achievements in university management. He has set an example for us to learn, to do, and to be a person. He is a “great teacher” we admire. His educational practice has influenced generations of Tsinghua people, and his spiritual demeanor is always worthy of our inheritance. The good culture, good tradition and good work style created and accumulated by the older generation of Tsinghua people represented by Comrade Gao Jingde are the most valuable spiritual wealth of Tsinghua University.

Qiu Yong emphasized that, embarking on the new journey of the second decade of the new century, Tsinghua University has entered a new stage of accelerating the realization of connotative high-quality development. We must base ourselves on the “two great layouts”, keep in mind the “major of the country”, uphold and strengthen the party’s overall leadership over the university, vigorously carry forward the fine traditions, insist on putting quality in a more prominent position, continue to deepen reforms, and promote “double first-class” construction, deeply implement the “14th Five-Year Plan” and the three medium and long-term strategic plans for 2030, and striving to create new achievements worthy of the times, the people, and the ancestors. This is our best memorial to the older generation of Tsinghua.

Fang Huijian made a speech

Fang Huijian said that Comrade Gao Jingde has a high academic level and is the first scholar in China to obtain a doctorate degree from the Soviet Union; his scientific research achievements are fruitful, and he has played a key role in the development of Tsinghua University and the national electrical engineering discipline; his educational ideas have far-reaching influence and contributed to the cause of higher education in China.

Lin Gongshi delivered a speech

Lin Gongshi, former vice president of the Postgraduate School and former director of the Postgraduate Office, shared his memories of working with Comrade Gao Jingde, and said that Comrade Gao Jingde cares about postgraduate education, and has great vision and made bold innovation in exploring the standardization and institutionalization of postgraduate education management, reforming the doctoral training system. He is the pioneer, leader and practitioner of the development of postgraduate education in Tsinghua University.

Guo Zengyuan delivered a speech

Guo Zengyuan, former vice president of the Postgraduate School and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that after the restoration of the postgraduate admissions system, Comrade Gao Jingde began the exploration and practice of training postgraduates in batches, and proposed that postgraduate training should be combined with engineering applications and national needs, which influenced the development of postgraduate education across the country.

Lu Qiang delivered a speech

As one of the first batch of disciples of Comrade Gao Jingde in the field of electric power system, Lu Qiang, a professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering of Applied Electronics and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reviewed Comrade Gao Jingde’s advanced deeds in studying and running a university. Lu Qiang pointed out that as an educator, Comrade Gao Jingde actively explored the system and methods of postgraduate training in China; as a scientist, he has made systematic and major scientific research achievements in the fields of electrical engineering and power system science and technology, and has made world-recognized achievements for China’s scientific and technological undertakings.

Yu Xinjie delivered a speech

Yu Xinjie, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics, said that Comrade Gao Jingde embodied the spirit of learning and being a person. He is capable of “not only exploring new knowledge, but also applying new knowledge”, and he pays attention to “both intersection of disciplines and cultivation of talents”. EEA will further summarize and inherit the spirit of Comrade Gao Jingde, and carry forward it in talent training and scientific research.

Sun Changji delivered a speech

Sun Changji, honorary chairman of the China Electrotechnical Society, former Vice Minister of Machinery, and an alumnus admitted to Tsinghua University in 1960, recalled the great contribution made by Comrade Gao Jingde in the development of the China Electrotechnical Society, and announced that the China Electrotechnical Society and Tsinghua University jointly initiated and established the “Gao Jingde Scientific and Technological Achievement Award” to inspire the majority of scientific and technological workers to inherit and carry forward the spirit of Comrade Gao Jingde’s “love of the motherland, pursuit of truth, pioneering and innovation, and selfless dedication”.

Li Yan delivered a speech

Li Yan, an undergraduate student admitted to the Department of Engineering Physics in 2019, delivered a speech on behalf of the winners of the “Gao Jingde Scholarship”. Li Yan said that the “Gao Jingde Scholarship” not only greatly helped him relieve his family’s financial difficulties, but also made him more calm and confident in his studies, so that he gradually became clear about the ideal pursuit of young people in the new era, and encouraged himself to be a person of Tsinghua, consciously moving forward with the pursuit of excellence.

Gao Ping delivered a speech

As a representative of the family, Gao Ping expressed his heartfelt thanks to the university for holding a symposium to commemorate Comrade Gao Jingde. Gao Ping recalled the past events of Comrade Gao Jingde’s dedication to scientific research, teaching and educating people, and said that his father loved the motherland, science, education, and students all his life, and dedicated his life to the country’s education and scientific research, and walking on an extraordinary path of life.

Granting a certificate for donating historical archives

At the symposium, He Meiying granted a donation certificate to Gao Heng, the representative of the family of Comrade Gao Jingde, and thanked her for donating the precious archives and historical material of Comrade Gao Jingde to the university.

“Bending Down to Teach Students — Exhibition to Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Gao Jingde’s Birth” was held in the lobby of the main building

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Gao Jingde, the University History Museum, Archive, EEA, and Tsinghua University Committee of China Democratic League jointly held the “Bending Down to Teach Students — Exhibition to Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Gao Jingde’s Birth”. The exhibition, divided into 6 parts, vividly shows Gao Jingde’s touching experience and outstanding achievements in his life through more than 100 historical pictures and more than 50 precious documents, including manuscripts, certificates, medals, works, work notes, etc., most of which are presented to the visitors for the first time. Before the symposium, the guests visited the special commemorative exhibition, stopped and lingered among the exhibits and historical material, and looked back on Gao Jingde’s way of being a person, doing things and studying.

At the symposium

More than 80 people including guests outside the university, alumni representatives, family members of Comrade Gao Jingde, heads of EEA and related departments, representatives of retired faculty members, and representatives of teachers and students attended the symposium.

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Gao Jingde (1922-1996), a native of Jiaxian County, Shaanxi Province. Electrical engineering educator, former president of Tsinghua University.

In 1941, he entered the Northwest Institute of Technology to study. In 1945, he joined Xi’an Xijing Power Plant to work. In 1947, he taught in the School of Engineering of Peking University. In 1948, he joined the Communist Party of China. In 1951, he went to the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Kalinin Institute of Technology in Leningrad, Soviet Union to study for an associate doctorate. In 1956, he was awarded a doctorate degree in technical sciences by leaping, becoming the first foreign student in China to obtain a doctorate degree from the Soviet Union. After returning to China in the same year, he served as a professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tsinghua University, and successively served as the first director of the Scientific Research Office, the Scientific Research and Production Office, a member of the University Affair Committee, and a standing member of the University Party Committee. In 1978, he served as the vice president, and the first director of the Postgraduate Office. In 1980, he was elected as a member of the Technical Science Department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From May 1983 to October 1988, he served as the president of the university and director of the University Affair Committee. Since then, he has also served as the deputy director and honorary deputy director of the University Affair Committee.

Gao Jingde was indifferent to fame and fortune all his life, but worked tirelessly and made outstanding achievements in university management. In the field of electrical engineering, he is a well-founded and accomplished scientist. His theoretical insights, new research directions, and research fields have played an extremely important role in promoting the development of Tsinghua University and China’s electrical engineering disciplines. During his tenure as president of Tsinghua University, he put forward the university running policy of “focusing on improvement and developing while improving”, completed discipline construction, deepened teaching reform, established a high-level talent training system, formulated scientific research development plans, and promoted international cooperation and exchanges; he has made great contribution to building Tsinghua University into a high-level comprehensive university.

This article is transferred from Tsinghua News