An academy named after Yuan Geng, a pioneer in China’s reform and opening up, was inaugurated by the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the First Academician Forum on Carbon Neutrality Technologies on Tuesday.

Yuan Geng Academy will have Li Guanglin, head of the Institute of Advanced Integration Technology of SIAT, as its founding dean.

“Shenzhen, as a vanguard of China’s reform and opening up, is characterized for its pioneering, opening, inclusive and pragmatic spirit. It advocates law and seeks excellence,” Li said at the forum held at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition in Futian District, the main venue of the 24th China Hi-Tech Fair.

Yuan Geng Academy will carry forward this spirit and contribute to Shenzhen’s development and cultivate its students with an innovative and pioneering spirit, according to Li.

Yuan Geng, born in 1917, was a prominent figure in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) and a pioneer in China’s reform and opening up.

In 1978, Yuan was assigned to help set up China Merchants Group in Hong Kong and then helped set up Shekou Industrial Zone in Shenzhen, a flagship program of China’s reform and opening up. Yuan also played a major role in establishing China Merchants Bank and Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China. Yuan died in 2016 at the age of 99.

At the forum, the Carbon Neutrality Institute of SIAT was also inaugurated. Cheng Huiming, academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was appointed as head of the institute. The institute will engage in establishing the whole chain of carbon neutrality technology innovation, fostering development of carbon neutrality-related industries, and providing policy and strategy consulting to government and enterprises in zero or low carbon energy supply, industrial chain development, carbon absorption and ecological regeneration.

The institute now has over 60 talents, including 50 master’s and doctorate degree holders, focusing on low dimensional energy materials and advanced energy storage technologies. In the next three to five years, the institute will expand to have a faculty with 500 to 800 employees whose researches will cover the technologies related to carbon neutrality, according to Cheng, a well-known scientist in carbon and new energy materials.

For this year’s hi-tech fair, SIAT brought over 250 projects covering synthetic biology, neuroscience, high-end medical devices, new materials, robotics, biopharmacy, carbon neutrality and new-generation information technologies.