Recently, Columbia University in the City of New York officially announced the list of honorary doctorates in 2023, and decided to award the honorary doctorate of Engineering to Academician Zhang Caifang ( Foreign Academician of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences), an she is a research and application scientist in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, and has a high international reputation.
Therefore, The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York to all persons to whom these presents may come greeting be it known that: CAIFANG ZHANG satisfied the requirements for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Engineering & Electrical Engineering.
In this regard, the evaluation and introduction of Academician Zhang Caifang by Columbia University in the City of New York are as follows:
“Caifang Zhang is a Foreign Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, research and application scientist of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, and member of the China Affairs Committee of the International Union of Oxford University ; Director of the Global Nobel Academy for Future Sciences. As a Chinese scholar, she is well known internationally.
Her main academic contributions:
(1) Proficient in using more than 100 kinds of basic core algorithm models of artificial intelligence, the number of people who can master more than 100 kinds of basic core algorithm models of artificial intelligence is only single digits in the world, and Caifang Zhang is one of the single digits in the world; (2) Contributed to the global “earth integrated hybrid network model” technical solution, its technical solution is how to solve the multi-user, high concurrency, large traffic communication needs; (3) First publicly proposed the “conical three-layer allocation theory” of high and low orbit satellite combination, and explored the new theory and new method to solve the “inter-satellite high-speed problem”.”
Columbia University in the City of New York usually awards honorary degrees to outstanding global celebrities every year in recognition of their outstanding achievements and contributions in academic, artistic and social work, which is also the highest honor awarded by Columbia University to individuals.
US President Eisenhower, French thinker Jacques Derrida, director Alfred Hitchcock, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other famous people have won this honor. Tsung-Dao Lee, Samuel Chao Chung Ting, Yo-Yo Ma, Ieoh Ming Pei, Shing-Tung Yau, Zhu Chen and other Chinese have won this honor.
Actually, Columbia University in the City of New York awards honorary degrees to global celebrities every year, especially for the scientific community. The basic conditions must be academicians who enjoy international reputation and popularity, and have made outstanding achievements and contributions as one of the assessment criteria. It can be seen that as a scientist, Academician Zhang Caifang obtained these two honorary doctorate degrees of Engineering is very valuable.
Personal Profile:
Academician Zhang Caifang, female, double doctorate; Postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University; Born in Shanghai in October 1978; AI big data scientists with important influence in the field of information technology; Professor-level senior engineer; Foreign Academician of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
She is currently a member of China Affairs of Oxford University Postdoctoral International Federation; Dean of the Global Nobel Institute for Future Sciences; Secretary General of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Sciences; Distinguished Research Fellow, China-Europe Institute of Economic and Technological Strategy.
Technical research direction:
Artificial intelligence algorithm model and big data analysis, automatic modeling of knowledge map, data intelligence, data security, digital twinning, digital economy and other technical fields.
Research and application direction:
In recent years, it mainly focuses on: terminal system on a chip, intelligent robot, smart city, smart medical and other application scenarios;
And the ecological application fields of metaverse such as 5G +, 6G, satellite Internet and simulated virtual digital people involved in the new generation Internet.
Major academic contributions:
(1) Proficient in using more than 100 kinds of artificial intelligence basic core algorithm models. Up to now, the number of people who can master more than 100 kinds of artificial intelligence basic core algorithm models is only single digits in the world, and Caifang Zhang is one of the single digits in the world; (2) Contributed to the technical scheme of “Heaven and Earth Integrated Hybrid Network Model” for the whole world, and its technical scheme is how to solve the communication needs of multi-users, high concurrency and large traffic; (3) The “cone-shaped three-layer allocation theory” combining high, medium and low-orbit satellites was first publicly put forward, and the exploration and research of new theories and methods to solve the “inter-satellite high-speed problem” was carried out.
Related achievements have been reported or paid attention to by Xinhua News Agency, Learning Power, CCTV, People’s Daily Online, China Net, Zhongjing Online, China Science and Technology News Network, Cover China, China Net, etc. Its related achievements have also been reported or paid attention to by more than 100 international core well-known mainstream media, such as Oxford Post, Cambridge Log, British Daily Technology, Manchester Express, Global News, American Morning News, American Pioneer Evening News, Digital Periodical and American Silicon Valley News Network, and included by over 600 global media, including Google website, Bing website and Yahoo website.
(1) Definition
“Honorary Degree of Doctor”, also known as Honorary Degree of Doctor, is an honorary degree, which is awarded to people who have made outstanding contributions and high reputation in relevant fields at home and abroad, and keep some contact with the school and contribute to the school; Its granting methods mainly include national unified authorization, local government authorization, university learning association or other forms of university appraisal organizations, etc. This kind of doctoral degree is awarded, focusing on the “glory” and “glory” of the degree.
(2) Purpose
The purpose of awarding honorary doctorates is to recognize outstanding contributions of outstanding scholars, scientists or famous politicians and social activists at home and abroad in academic, economic, educational, scientific, cultural and health fields, as well as social development and human progress.
(3) Number control (examples from China):
According to the statistics of China Academic Degrees Committee, from 1983 to 2018, a total of 338 people obtained honorary doctorates in China in 35 years, with an average of less than 10 people every year. At the 2018 annual meeting of the Technical Committee for Giant Panda Breeding, it was revealed that by November 2018, the number of captive giant pandas in the world had reached 548. The number of wild giant pandas is close to 2,000. In this way, the number of honorary doctors awarded by China is far lower than the number of national treasure giant pandas.
Examples from Columbia University in the United States:
Columbia University, officially named Columbia University in the City of New York, is located in the morning heights of Upper Manhattan, New York, USA. It is a top private research university, one of the fourteen founding institutions of the Association of American Universities, one of the Ivy League [1], and a member of the Global University Presidents Forum [28].
Columbia University is the oldest institution of higher education in New York State, originally called King’s College, which was established in 1754 according to the royal charter issued by King George II of England [42]. In 1767, Columbia University awarded the first medical doctor’s degree, which was also the first professional doctor’s degree in American history. Columbia University is one of the important research institutions in the United States and the birthplace of the first nuclear fission-Manhattan Project in North America. Columbia University invented brain-computer interface, laser, maser and nuclear magnetic resonance. The completion of Drosophila experiments became the origin of modern genetics. Prove the theory of plate tectonics. During World War II, the Manhattan Project to build atomic bombs was born in Columbia University.
As of 2023, the honorary doctors awarded by this world famous school after 256 years (from 1767, when the doctoral degree can be awarded) have accumulated no more than 200 people in the world, and the average number of people awarded each year actually does not exceed 3 people, which shows the preciousness and scarcity of its honor.
To sum up the above, it can be seen that the number of honorary doctorates awarded in China and the United States is the same.
(4) The qualifications and prestige of the object granted
Examples from China:
From 2011 to 2018, according to the data released by China Degree and Postgraduate Information Network, a total of 338 people have obtained honorary doctorates in China in 35 years, with an average of less than 10 people every year.
Among them, from 1983 to 2010, China awarded 241 honorary doctorates. Among them, there are 89 scientists (14 of whom are Nobel Prize winners), including physicists Zhenning Yang , Zhaozhong Ding , Zhengdao Li and Chemist Siegel, accounting for 37.4% of the total; There are 44 heads of state and government, including Australian President Robert Hawke, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Spadolini and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, accounting for 18.5%; There are 12 national dignitaries, including Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand and Marina, Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Brazil. Silva and Chinese-American Governor Gary Locke, accounting for 5%; There are 36 famous university presidents (4 of whom have served as presidents of 8 Ivy League schools), including Columbia University President Lee Paulinger, Oxford University President Colin Lucas, Cambridge University President Alec Bruce, Yale University President Richard Levin, etc., accounting for 14.7%; There are 36 social activists, including Guowei Li , general manager of Hong Kong Hang Seng Bank, and Wanqi Ma , president of Macao Chinese Chamber of Commerce, accounting for 15.1%; There are 18 heads of international institutions, including United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Amadou Mahtar Mbo, Director-General of UNESCO, accounting for 7.6%; There are 4 party leaders, including Chan Lien , Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party, and Poh-hsiung Wu , chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party, etc, accounting for 1.7%. (As shown in Table 2 below):
Table 2 Total number and proportion of personnel with various identities and qualifications granted
Above, Columbia University in the United States has basically the same identity and qualifications as China in the assessment and conditions of the qualifications and prestige of the recipients.
