On November 30, 2025, the 10th Anniversary Celebration Ceremony of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (IESR) of Jinan University was grandly held at the International Conference Hall of the Zengxianzi Science Building.
Ceremony Participants
The event brought together over 300 attendees, including leaders from Jinan University’s administrative departments and sister institutions, alumni and careermentors, and all faculty and students of IESR. Professor Jingliang Lu, Vice Dean of IESR, chaired the ceremony.
Professor Jingliang Lu
Opening Remarks
The ceremony commenced with a welcome speech by Professor Naihua Gu, Vice President of Jinan University. He extended his heartfelt congratulations on IESR’s 10th anniversary and acknowledged its consistent commitment to a pragmatic and truth-seeking development path. Concluding his address, he expressed his hope that IESR would build upon its past achievements and continue to write brilliant new chapters in international economics education and academic research.
Professor Naihua Gu
Following this, Professor Shuaizhang Feng, Dean of IESR, delivered a report reviewing the past decade and outlining IESR’s prospects. He systematically presented IESR’s remarkable journey from blueprint to reality, focusing on four core pillars: Research, Students, Data, and Think Tank. Based on these solid foundations, he charted a new path for IESR’s future development. He emphasized that all of IESR’s accomplishments were made possible by the steadfast support from Jinan University, the academic community, faculty, students, alumni, and society at large, to whom he expressed his highest respect and most sincere gratitude.
Professor Shuaizhang Feng
Next, representatives from two sister institutions were invited to deliver speeches.
Professor Yongmiao Hong, Dean of the School of Economics and Management at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, recalled the longstanding academic fellowship with IESR. He spoke highly of IESR’s achievements over the past decade, particularly praising its outstanding success in organically integrating internationalization with localization. He noted that IESR has blazed a trail in economics grounded in the Chinese context, with projects like the“Guangdong Thousand-Village Survey” truly embodying the academic ideal of “writing research papers on the soil of our motherland.”
Professor Yongmiao Hong
Professor Junsen Zhang, Director of the Division of Social Sciences at Zhejiang University, noted that IESR’s journey from inception to maturity is a brilliant example of leapfrog development for an academic institution. He also expressed his anticipation of continued collaboration with IESR to contribute even more significantly to innovation in China’s economic field and to improving people’s well-being.
Professor Junsen Zhang
It is worth mentioning that IESR had received over 30 congratulatory letters from representatives of sister institutions and partner organizations.
Greetings from a Nobel Laureate
During the ceremony, Professor James J. Heckman, the 2000 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, and his team sent special video greetings for IESR’s tenth birthday. As a long-term collaborator, he reviewed the cooperative journey with IESR, highly commending IESR’s rigorous research based on Chinese data in areas such as returns to education, population mobility, and child development. He affirmed that these contributions hold significant value for both the global academic community and policy-making.
Speeches by Faculty and Student Representatives
Siyu Chen, Associate Professor from IESR, expressed her sincere gratitude in her speech for the attention and support the university and IESR have provided for faculty growth, offering fertile ground for them to take root in academia and realize their ideals. As a young scholar, she extended particular thanks to the IESR’s leadership, colleagues, students, and alumni, emphasizing that it is within this supportive and collaborative environment that her research path feels especially warm and encouraging.
Professor Siyu Chen
Meijia Zeng, an undergraduate student from the class of 2022, then shared her special connection with IESR. Her bond with IESR began as early as her second year of high school through the “Mianzhu Child Cognitive and Non-cognitive Ability Development Tracking Project.” The positive experience from field research solidified her decision to choose IESR. Reflecting on her study journey, she expressed heartfelt thanks for the growth platform provided by IESR and shared her full confidence and anticipation for IESR’s future development.
Undergraduate Representative Meijia Zeng
IESR Alumni Association Inauguration Ceremony
Following the representatives’ addresses, Professor Jun Hu, President of the Jinan University Alumni Association, presided over the inauguration ceremony of the IESR Alumni Association.
Professor Jun Hu
Then, Kangkai Wang, an IESR alumnus from the class of 2020 and the first inaugural President of the Alumni Association, gave an inaugural speech.
President of the Alumni Association Kangkai Wang
Career Mentor Appointment Ceremony
In the next session, Professor Zizhong Yan from IESR hosted the Inaugural Appointment Ceremony for Undergraduate Career Mentors.
Professor Zizhong Yan
To bridge the critical gap for students transitioning “from campus to society,” IESR officially launched the “Undergraduate Career Mentor System” this year, aiming to introduce high-quality social resources on campus and build a sturdy bridge connecting the classroom with the workplace.
IESR Career Mentors
At the end of the appointment, Mr. Jianxun Hu, President of the Zengcheng Sub-branch of Huaxia Bank, was invited to deliver a speech.
Career Mentor Jianxun Hu
Closing Ceremony
The 10th Anniversary Celebration Ceremony concluded successfully with the chorus of Jinan University’s school song. This gathering, imbued with gratitude and anticipation, was not only a profound reflection on IESR’s journey over the past decade but also the embarkation point for a new voyage.
Celebrating a glorious decade, embracing a new future. We firmly believe that, with the joint efforts of all faculty and students and the sustained support from all sectors of society, IESR will undoubtedly write even more brilliant chapters in the future, injecting new wisdom and vitality into economic research in China and into the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
