Xi'an Jiaotong University, one of China's top universities based in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, has reached new heights in cultivating talent and academic research thanks to its five-year effort to build a special academic zone.

The academic special zone, located in the university's Qujiang campus and actually named the Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, was established in 2010, focusing on the introduction of talent from all over the world and academic research on materials science, physics, chemistry, biology (life science and basic medicine), according to Ren Xiaobing, director of the institute.

Ren said that after 5 years of development, his institute has become a vibrant high-end science talent gathering place, a production base of high level scientific research achievements, an international institute with frequent international scientific exchanges and research and the reform leader of research institutions and management mechanisms.

"We underwent scientific institution reform to provide a scientific research and management environment with international standards for introduced talents, and we also strengthened and completed our weaker subjects by introducing talent from all over the world in materials science, physics, chemistry, biology (life science and basic medicine), in order to make our school become a truly comprehensive research university," said Wang Shuguo, president of the university.

During the past 5 years, the institute introduced 44 teachers by 50:1 selection, of whom 43 percent are academics with national level titles, and 25 percent of the total are foreign teachers, Ren said.

And the quantity and quality of published research papers achieved by the teachers and students in the institute also represents the success of the institute, which greatly promoted the scientific development of the university.

In the period between January and October in 2015, 30 research papers by the institute were published in high level international journals, more than the total of the same level papers published in 2014, which showed the rapid growth of the quantity and quality of the published papers, Ren said.

A symposium for marking the institute's 5th anniversary was held on Thursday in the institute and Dr. Ed Gerstner, executive editor of Nature was present and fully acknowledged the research achievements made by the institute teachers and students.