History: The School of Atmospheric Science (SAS) of Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST) develops from the Department of Meteorology that was founded within the Nanjing Institute of Meteorology (the predecessor of NUIST) when the latter was established in 1960. It was among the first batch of schools and departments authorized by the State Council to offer master’s degree programs in 1978. In 1993 it was authorized to offer doctoral degree program in Weather Dynamics. In 1997 Climatology became a Key Discipline of the China Meteorological Administration. Atmospheric Science, the level I discipline of SAS, was approved to be a doctoral degree program in 1998, and began to have post-doctoral workshop since 1999. Meteorology, a level II discipline of SAS, was selected as a National Key Discipline in 2002 and 2007. Atmospheric Science was then rated as a Level I Key Discipline of Jiangsu Province in 2008 and an Advantageous Discipline of Jiangsu Province in 2011 and 2014. It also ranked No. 1 in the third round of national discipline evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Education of China (MOE) in 2012. In 2014, SAS was awarded as the Advanced Collective of National Education System by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and MOE.
Degree Programs: SAS offers bachelor’s degree program in Atmospheric Science, master’s degree programs in Meteorology and Climate System and Climate Change, and doctoral degree programs in Atmospheric Science (level I discipline) and in Meteorology and Climate System and Climate Change (level II disciplines). It also has a post-doctoral workshop for Atmospheric Science.
Faculty: SAS has 157 faculty members, including 112 teachers and 19 professional practice tutors. Among the teachers, there are 42 professors (research fellows), 28 associate professors (associate research fellows), 51 supervisors of doctoral degree candidates, and 57 supervisors of master’s degree candidates. All teachers under 50 years old are doctoral degree holders, while 83.02% of them have been abroad. Apart from them, SAS has also invited 11 overseas experts to work as part-time supervisors.
Within SAS there are 1 academician, 2 experts of the “One Thousand Talent Project”, 2 chief scientists of the “973 Project”, 4 recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2 overseas recipients), 1 chair professor of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program of MOE, 12 experts receiving special government allowance from the State Council, 1 expert supported by the “New Century Talent Supporting Project” of MOE, and 4 experts selected by the “New Century Talents Project”. SAS also has 3 recipients of the Zou Jingmeng Award for Meteorologists, 3 Young or Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions in Jiangsu Province, 2 experts and 2 doctors of the Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Jiangsu Province, 5 Distinguished Professors of Jiangsu Province, 1 Renowned Teacher of Jiangsu Province and 1 Outstanding Worker of Jiangsu Province.
Scientific Research: SAS has 6 outstanding provincial scientific innovation teams, including an expert team of the Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Jiangsu Province, the Typhoon and Meso-scale Meteorology Team, the Data Assimilation and Meso-scale Meteorology Team, the Climate Modeling and Forecast Team, and the East Asian Monsoon and Regional Climate Change Team. Meanwhile, innovation teams have also been built in areas such as Data Assimilation Research and Application, Climate Dynamics and Earth System Modeling.
SAS has formed 6 main research directions that are most distinctive in the domestic atmospheric science circle: Atmospheric Circulation and Its Dynamic Process, Monsoon and Air-sea-land Interaction, Numerical Modeling and Climate Prediction, Meteorological Data Processing and Assimilation Application, Meso-scale Meteorology and Typhoon, and Climate Change and Regional Response. Altogether SAS has won over 140 scientific awards of various kinds and levels, including: 3 international awards, 2 National Awards for Natural Sciences, 8 National Awards for Progress in Science and Technology, 11 National Scientific Conference Awards, 15 Jiangsu Provincial Awards for Progress in Science and Technology, and 4 Jiangsu Provincial Scientific Conference Awards. In 2015, Prof. Bin Wang, the overseas dean of SAS, was awarded with the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, the highest award for Atmospheric Science.
In the recent 5 years, SAS has led or participated in over 420 research projects. It has received 2 grants from “Project 973”, 1 from the “Global Change” National Key Research and Development Program, 1 from the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and 7 from the National Science Fund for Key Programs, The supporting funds it receives has increased from RMB 34.88 million in 2012 to 75.16 million in 2016. In the meantime, SAS has published over 1550 high-quality academic papers. Among them 450 are accepted by SCI (E), including 1 published by the top international journal SCIENCE.
Teaching: the Atmospheric Science program in SAS was rated as the Brand Major of Jiangsu Province in 2006 and 2015, and selected as one of the 2nd batch of Distinctive Major Building Sites of MOE in 2007. In 2012 it was selected as the pilot project of the “Comprehensive Major Reform” conducted by MOE, and the Jiangsu Provincial Key High School Major in the 12th Five-year.
SAS boasts a teaching team of the main courses of Atmospheric Science, which is an Outstanding State-level Teaching Team, and a specialized teaching team of Atmospheric Science, which is an Outstanding Jiangsu Provincial Teaching Team. It has two excellent national open courses: Principle of Synoptic Meteorology and Numerical Weather Prediction, and 4 national or provincial excellent courses including Synoptic Meteorology and Numerical Weather Prediction. Besides, it has produced 7 nationally planned textbooks and 5 national or provincial excellent textbooks. It wins the first prize of the National Award for Outstanding Achievements in Teaching twice, and the grand, first and second prize of the Jiangsu Provincial Award for Outstanding Achievements in Teaching (High Education) twice, respectively.
Platform Building: SAS has several critical ministerial and provincial-level research units, such as the International Joint Laboratory on Climate and Environmental Change, Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disasters of MOE, and the Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters.
In 2012 the NUIST-CMA Meteorological Observation Centre Educational Practice Base was rated as a state-level off-campus practice base; in 2013 the Experimental Teaching Center of Atmospheric Science and Environmental Meteorology was selected as a state-level demonstration center of experimental teaching; in 2014 the Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching Center for Atmospheric Science & Meteorological Information became a state-level virtual simulation experimental teaching center.
Talent Training: Boasting the backbone major of this “cradle of Chinese meteorologists”, SAS has cultivated numerous high-quality researchers as well as operational and management staff, including 3 academicians. Its degrees and academic credits are widely recognized by renowned universities and research institutes abroad. In recent years graduates of SAS have maintained a 40% postgraduate enrollment rate and a 100% employment rate. The Changwang Experimental Class of Atmospheric Science set up within SAS mainly aims at training a new type of top-notch meteorological talents with solid rudimentary knowledge and skills, high competence and quality and a global mindset.