Shi Yigong (; born 5 May 1967) is a Chinese

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

who serves as founding and the current president of Westlake University since April 2018. He previously served as vice president of

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

from 2015 to 2018 and dean of Tsinghua University School of Life Sciences from 2009 to 2016.

Education

Shi Yigong received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

with majors in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from Tsinghua University in 1989 and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in molecular biophysics from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

in 1995. He studied at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

for three months in 1990, before transferring to Johns Hopkins University. During his graduate studies, he determined the

crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat ...

of several critical apoptotic proteins, including apaf-1, DIAP1, and the BIR3 domain of XIAP.

Career

Shi Yigong was the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in the department of

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. In June 2008, he was selected as a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

investigator. However, he rejected the award upon resigning his position at Princeton University in order to pursue his career at

, becoming the dean of the School of Life Sciences there. In 2003, he was appointed a Chair Professor of Tsinghua's Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology. In late 2007, He was appointed Vice Director of Tsinghua's Institute of Biomedicine and Vice Dean of Tsinghua's Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology before returning to China. He was appointed Dean of Tsinghua's School of Life Sciences (replacing the Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology) in 2009. In 2018, he became the founding and the first president of Westlake University, a newly established private university in

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

. Shi renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2011 in order to reclaim his Chinese citizenship.

Personal life

Shi's grandfather was academic and politician Shi Ping. According to Shi, his father, Shi Huailin (施怀琳), was named after his mother Yang Lin (杨琳), who died 18 days after his birth, with 怀琳 literally meaning "remembering Lin". As a result of his grandfather's work commitments, his father was estranged from his grandfather as a child, and friends and family raised his father. Shi's father and grandfather eventually reunited later in life. His father died on 21 September 1987, at the age of 52. His grandfather died on 29 June 2024, at the age of .

Awards

* 2020, the Tan Kah Kee Science Award * 2018,

Asian Scientist 100 The Asian Scientist 100 is an annually published list of 100 prize-winning Asian researchers, academicians, innovators and business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region and a range of scientific disciplines. Recipients "must have received ...

, ''

Asian Scientist ''Asian Scientist'' is an English language science and technology magazine published in Singapore. History and profile ''Asian Scientist'' was launched as a blog in March 2011 by Juliana Chan. The blog's popularity eventually led to a partnersh ...

'' * 2017, Future Science Prize in Life Sciences * 2016, Ho Leung Ho Lee Award for Achievement in Science and Technology * 2015, Nature Award for Mentoring in science * 2014, Gregori Aminoff Prize, from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences * 2013, foreign associate of the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

* 2013, foreign associate of the European Molecular Biology Organization * 2013, Academician

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

, 中国科学院院士 * 2011, Ray Wu Award from the Chinese Biological Investigators Society * 2010 Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize * Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award, from the Protein Society * Searle Scholar Award * Rita Allen Scholar Award * 2000, Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award * 1995, Paul Ehrlich Research Award in Basic Science

References

External links

Dr. Shi Yigong Appointed Vice Director of Tsinghua's Institute of Biomedicine
Tsinghua University News

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shi, Yigong 1967 births Living people People from Zhengzhou Biologists from Henan Chinese biophysicists Chinese emigrants to the United States Educators from Henan Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Johns Hopkins University alumni Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Former United States citizens Physicists from Henan Princeton University faculty Tsinghua University alumni Academic staff of Tsinghua University Members of the 14th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Westlake University