The mathematics discipline of East China Normal University has a long history and good reputation, and has achieved brilliant achievements. When the People's Republic of China was founded, it had four national second-level professors: Ruifu Li, Duanzhuang Qian, Qixiang Cheng, and Zeying Sun; in the mid-1980s, young teachers Gang Xiao and Weian Zheng were promoted to become the youngest professors and doctoral supervisors in the country; in 1981, Basic Mathematics became one of the first majors in China to be awarded master's and doctoral degrees; in 1999, it was approved as one of the first doctoral programs in mathematics education in China; in 2007, it was selected as one of the first national characteristic majors; the senior generation of mathematicians at East China Normal University, represented by Professor Xihua Cao, who led the research of Chinese algebraic groups to the forefront of the world, and Professor Dianzhou Zhang, a famous Chinese mathematics educator and historian of mathematics, have made immortal contributions to the development of the mathematics discipline of East China Normal University.
On March 14, 2018, the Department of Mathematics of East China Normal University was renamed the School of Mathematical Sciences of East China Normal University. According to the characteristics and development needs of the mathematics discipline, the school consists of three departments: the Department of Basic Mathematics, the Department of Applied Mathematics, and the Department of Mathematics Education. The school has become an important mathematics research base, talent training base, and national public-funded normal student training base in China. It was rated as an excellent discipline in the latest round of evaluation by the Ministry of Education. In the internationally authoritative ESI global discipline ranking, it ranks in the top 0.5% of the global mathematics discipline ranking, and ranks among the best in China. It has a national first-level doctoral program in mathematics and a doctoral program in mathematics education, a mathematics postdoctoral station, a national basic science talent training and scientific research base, Key Laboratory of Mathematics and Engineering Applications, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Practice, the first batch of "overseas high-level talent innovation and entrepreneurship bases" in Shanghai, and several specialized mathematics research centers. At present, the school has a scientific research and teaching team led by many internationally renowned mathematicians and mathematics educators, and mainly composed of young and middle-aged mathematicians. Among them, there is one ICM 45-minute speaker and 8 experts selected for the National High-level Talent Program.
The School of Mathematical Sciences has made outstanding achievements in talent cultivation, and has trained a group of outstanding scientists and mathematicians, including Hesheng Hu and Nanhua Xi, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhengdi Cheng, academician of the US Academy of Engineering, Meigu Guan, the internationally renowned creator of the "Chinese Postman Problem", Jianpan Wang, one of the first batch of doctors in China, and a group of mathematicians and scholars active in well-known universities domestically and internationally. The School of Mathematical Sciences has also trained a large number of educators, entrepreneurs and financial professionals, becoming a successful model for the cultivation of diversified talents in mathematics. Through their distinguished achievements across specialized domains, these luminaries have brought national honor while illuminating the prestige of the School of Mathematical Sciences.
The School of Mathematical Sciences is currently undertaking a number of important national projects, including the National Key R&D Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. It provides mathematical wisdom for companies such as Huawei, Shanghai International Port Group, and China Communications Information Technology, and hosted the 14th International Conference on Mathematics Education.
