“High-end talents are indispensable for Hainan to transform from a province with large sea area into one with strong maritime power. And we feel duty-bound to cultivate more marine science talents for Hainan FTP,” said Prof. Shen Yijun of Hainan University (HNU).

Late last month, he was appointed as Dean of the School of Marine Sciences and Engineering of HNU. His previous title was Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in the South China Sea (the "Lab"). He has great confidence for his new role.

Prof. Shen communicates with his team.

Shen earned his PhD degree from the University of Southampton, whose School of Ocean and Earth Science has a very long history and is known for its excellence in teaching. It was his experience in Southampton made him decide to commit himself to the research on the development of ocean energy technologies.

During his over-20-year stay overseas, Shen not only worked with several renowned universities and multinational companies, but also led multiple R&D projects related to the development of deep sea-energy and resources.

He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011. Two years later, he became a member of the Technical Program Committee of the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).

He has amassed extensive research experience in deep-sea oil and gas engineering, marine renewable energy technology, and the technology and equipment for deep-sea energy and resource development.

In 2020, attracted by the promising future of Hainan Free Trade Port, Shen chose to return to China and started his work in the Lab. “In recent years, with its focus on innovation and collaboration, Hainan has built research and innovation platforms for strategic sectors, such as deep-sea exploration, marine resource exploration and utilisation. And this has created favourable conditions for my research,” he said.

“At the beginning, I did encounter some difficulties at work. One example is the lack of appropriate experimental equipments for my research. Therefore, I had to ask manufacturers to custom design for me. Even so, some equipments I got might still need to be optimised later. Another is lack of manpower. There were only two doctoral students working with me,” he recalled, “In spite of these, we still managed to get one key R&D program and one major science and technology program, both from Hainan.” According to Shen, the University offered tremendous support to him in providing start-up research funding and research facilities.

As the saying goes, talents are the foundation of scientific research. That is why Shen has put so much efforts in recruiting talents into his team by offering attractive projects and platforms. He also has his eye on overseas talents. He has managed to convince the University to recruit a number of promising young post-doctors to work in the Lab.

Right now, Shen’s team has grown into forty strong, with talents from various disciplines, turning it into a virtuous cycle of development. Last year, the Major Technical Special Project on “Key Technologies and Equipment for Deep-Sea” of National Key Research and Development Program (with him as the PI) passed acceptance, and the project “Design Theory and Key Mechanical Issues of Fully Flexible Riser Transportation System for Deep-Sea Mining” (with him as the PI) was granted by the National Natural Science Foundation as a key project.

Besides his outstanding achievements in research, Prof. Shen also has his own understanding of teaching. “Teaching is not only about lecturing. It should also be about guiding students in developing positive research attitude and innovative thinking. It’ll be impossible for teachers to do this if they themselves don’t have strong research abilities,” explained him.

To improve his students research abilities, Shen hold supervision meetings with students every week, during which the latter are required to report the status on the tasks assigned to them, including the progress, problems they encountered, and their solutions. He also divides students into several groups and encourages them to learn from each other in discussion and collaboration.

“I always remind them to develop the abilities of independent thinking and problem solving. Through this way, they will build up strong confidence and do what others are not capable of when they graduate,” said him. In daily communication with students, Shen mainly shares his ways of solving problems, such as how to start and move forward when receiving a new research subject.

Besides, he invests a lot of efforts in coaching undergraduates to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship contests. “I will talk with students about the details of their participating projects, and show them how to make their projects innovative and engineeringly practical.” This year, Shen coached students to win a second prize at the provincial stage (Hainan) of the 9th China International College Students' 'Internet+' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.

“Our school holds that it is our responsibility to contribute to the development of the marine economy of Hainan. We are committed to conducting researches in line with the needs of the industry and educating high-end marine science talents, so as to play our part in building China into a country with strong maritime power,” said Shen.