Dr. Zeng Yuqun, also known as Robin Zeng, is the honorary dean of GIFT. He is a 1985 alumnus of SJTU majoring in marine engineering and a senior engineer. He is best known as the founder, chairman and CEO of the battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL). Dr. Zeng is actively involved in promoting the academic development of the lithium-ion battery industry. He is currently a member of the Asian society for solid state Ionics, and an academic member of the Center for Clean Energy of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In 2011 he started CATL, a company committed to powering people’s lives with green energy and providing solutions for new energy applications. Under Zeng’s leadership, CATL has expanded into a global leader of new energy innovative technologies. Taking technological innovation as its core mission, CATL promotes innovation in four dimensions, namely in material and electrochemistry system, structure system, green extreme manufacturing and business model. Since 2017, the company has been the leading manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries by volume in the world for five consecutive years, and in June 2018, it was listed on the China’s Growth Enterprise Market.

In 2020, Dr. Zeng received the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries (NAATBatt) Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to enabling the large-scale manufacturing of lithium-ion power battery technology. Under his leadership, CATL won the Second Prize of National Science and Technology Progress, the Second Prize of MOE Technological Invention Award, and the Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Lithium Power in China. Zeng himself has also been awarded the National Labor Day Medal, Special Prize of China Automotive Industry Awards for Science and Technology, and has been recognized as Excellent Science and Technology worker of Fujian Province, 2020 Top 10 Economic Personages of China, among various other honors.

Guang Ning is the honorary dean of GIFT. He is a CAE (Chinese Academy of Engineering) academician, and a SJTU Guangqi Chair Professor. He is president of Ruijin Hospital affiliated to SJTU School of Medicine, where he also works as tenured professor, chief physician and doctoral supervisor. He is director of Shanghai Institute for Endocrinology and Metabolism, director of Shanghai Digital Medicine Innovation Center, and director of SJTU Institute of Digital Medicine. His other professional services include being the Honorary President of Endocrinology and Metabolism Branch of Chinese Physicians Association, Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Diabetes.

Prof. Ning has been engaged in clinical and scientific research of endocrine metabolic diseases, and has made especially remarkable achievements in the field of endocrine tumor and diabetes diagnosis, treatment and research. He has published more than 500 papers in top peer-reviewed journals such as Science, JAMA, Net Med, Net Cell Biol, JACC, etc., and is winner of 4 Second Prizes of National Science and Technology Progress, 4 First Prizes of Shanghai Science and Technology Progress, and 1 First Prize of Shanghai Technological Invention Award. Under his leadership, the Department of Endocrine and Metabolism of Ruijin Hospital has been ranked No. 1 in China for 11 years.

Prof. Ning’s contributions are also internationally recognized as he has received honors such as the Israel Diabetes Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) Outstanding International Clinician Award, and the Yutaka Seino Distinguished Leadership Award of the Asian Association for the Study of Diabetes (AASD).