The list for the Cheung Kong Scholars Program in 2015 was announced officially by the Ministry of Education. Seven talents of Nankai University were on the list. Professor Gong Chen and professor Fangyi Cheng, from the college of chemistry, both were elected as the Yong Scholars.

By far, there have been fifty-nine professors, including thirty-nine distinguished professors, sixteen chair professors, and six young scholars in Nankai who got enrolled in the program.

Professor Gong Chen

Professor Gong Chen’s research interests are focused on organic syntheses of complex glycopeptide compounds and their chemical biology researches.

Chen received a bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University, and earned a Ph. D. from Columbia University in 2004. From 2005 to 2008, he researched the chemical syntheses of complex glycoproteins in Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as post-doctoral work. In 2008, he was offered an appointment at the Penn State University, where he became a full professor in 2014. In 2015, he came to Nankai University, where he is currently a professor of organic chemistry.  

In 2016, Chen’s group reported the first total synthesis of mannopeptimycin α and β with excellent efficiency and stereoselectivity, which provided conclusive evidence for the structural determination of highly complex glycopeptide natural products.

Professor Fangyi Cheng

Professor Fangyi Cheng undertakes the research in chemistry for energy materials. His topic research on the synthesis and application of functional transition metal has gained some innovative achievements.

He graduated with a Ph. D. in chemistry from Nankai University in 2009, and studied in University of California, Los Angeles as a visiting scholar in 2015.

Professor Cheng has published 41 SCI papers with >6000 citations (H index 41). He has been recognized as one of the “Most Cited Chinese Researchers” by Elsevier, and has received National Natural Science Award (2nd Class, Co-winner) in 2011 and New Century Excellent Talents Project (Ministry of Education) in 2013.