Nominees for the People of Distinction | CHEN Di: To Be a Guide and Companion for Students’ Personal Development and Academic Success

CHEN Di, assistant professor at the ZJU-UoE Institute, has been committed to student-centered growth since he joined iZJU in Sep. 2019. As a PI engaged in research into the regulation of human embryonic stem cells in their development towards becoming primordial germ cells, he has undertaken many national-level scientific research projects and has published his research findings in many prestigious professional journals. He is also dedicated to the development of biomedical students, teaching courses such as Molecular Biology, Epigenetics 3, and Frontiers in Biomedical Science 1 for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. He has built up over 700 hours of teaching—a number significantly surpassing the average number of teaching hours. He is a dedicated advocate of an educational philosophy centered on student growth and has mentored many undergraduate and postgraduate students who have received honors and earned widespread praise from both the faculty and their peers.

Teach by precept and example, and be a leader in students' growth

In his second year at iZJU, during his early adaptation period as a new faculty member, the young Chen Di took the initiative to become a class mentor and was also appointed as an Academic Advisor (AA) and a residential college mentor. As a class mentor, he was responsible for leading 30 students of the 2001 Class of the Bioinformatics (BMI) Program. With a strong sense of responsibility and dedication, he actively participated in strengthening class development and guided the growth of his students. Each year, he insisted on having one-on-one meetings and discussions with every student in class, sharing his own experiences of studying abroad and returning to his home country to encourage students to focus on learning both for the benefit of humanity and with sentiment for their homeland. He understood the students' situations and was able to answer their questions and help them with their difficulties. He kept records for each student in his class, tracking their learning progress continuously over four years and providing targeted guidance to support their growth. As an AA and residential college mentor, he regularly communicated with students, proactively contacting and caring for students in need, ensuring that every student received the support they needed in time. He also provided assistance to other students of ZJE and even the whole campus, as far as he was able. As a graduate student moral education mentor, he focused on building close connections with students, actively sharing his own experiences in studying and scientific research, and providing guidance and inspiration to students in terms of moral development and life planning.

Under his guidance, the students of the 2001 BMI Class have achieved significant results: the number of students entering graduate study reached 93%, with 82% pursuing their further studies at top 20 universities. Outstanding students have also emerged, such as Huang, who received the National Scholarship for three consecutive years, and Cai, who went on to study at Harvard University. The class has also received a large number of honors, including Zhejiang University's Advanced Class, Zhejiang University's Outstanding League Branch, the Advanced League Branch, and the May Fourth Red Banner League Branch. Between 2021 and 2023, Chen was also honored as the "Outstanding Class Mentor" at the International Campus for two consecutive academic years and ZJU “Outstanding Class Mentor” for the 2022-2023 academic year, as well as "Outstanding Moral Education Mentor" for the 2023-2024 academic year."

Adapting teaching methods to individual students and being a practitioner of student-centered education

As a young faculty member at the International Campus, despite the heavy pressure of scientific research, Chen invests his best efforts into education and teaching, imparting knowledge and resolving students’ doubts and problems to aid their growth. In undergraduate courses, he focuses on teaching students according to their aptitude, enhancing their critical thinking and the effectiveness of the courses. In the courses Molecular Biology and Epigenetics 3, he found out that students had strong literature presentation and display skills but lacked proficiency in understanding and analyzing specific experiments in the scientific literature and did not have a sufficiently deep understanding of bioinformatics. He addressed this issue by collaborating creatively with the teaching team to set up small-group class discussions, training students' scientific comprehension abilities in a targeted manner, which significantly improved their ability to read literature in depth and laid an important foundation for enhancing their scientific research capabilities.

Chen encourages undergraduate students to actively participate in scientific research, to have the courage to "challenge themselves beyond their own level," and to regard themselves as researchers, truly engaging in scientific activities. His laboratory regularly accepts undergraduate students for scientific practice and has arranged innovative programs such as "literature reading training," "molecular and cellular training," and "bioinformatics analysis training" that progressively enhance the scientific research capabilities of undergraduate students. In graduate education, he emphasizes exchange and mutual learning in scientific research and focuses more on training the comprehensive abilities of graduate students. He and his colleagues jointly lead the ZJE Weekly Symposium, where two graduate students share their research progress every week. This not only allows the audience to hear about the latest research progress in related fields but also trains and enhances the presenters' ability to read and summarize literature and hones their academic presentation skills. Under his guidance, students' scientific research abilities have earned the recognition of their peers. One student, Zhou, was the only undergraduate to deliver a presentation at the China Stem Cell Annual Conference, and undergraduate students from his research team have published 14 articles in international academic journals. One of Chen’s graduate students, Wang, was appointed as an ambassador to the International Stem Cell Annual Conference due to his outstanding performance, and students Wang and Yu received travel awards at the China Cell Biology Annual Conference.

Devote oneself wholeheartedly and serve the development of teachers and students

Even as he excels in educational teaching and scientific research, Chen actively participates in campus governance, serving the development of the campus and the growth of teachers and students. As a representative of the campus Faculty Congress and Trade Union Congress, he diligently fulfills his duties, participating in democratic development and responding to the current situation of graduate education at the campus, which is still in its early stages. He has proposed measures to improve the quality of student admission and strengthen training quality control to lay a solid foundation for graduate education at the International Campus. As a member of the campus trade union's cultural and sports committee, he organizes various cultural and sports activities with great enthusiasm, enriching the cultural life of the campus. He set up the campus faculty basketball team, organized campus basketball tournaments, and led the campus faculty basketball team to reach the quarter finals for the first time in the ZJU basketball tournament. He also actively participates in the organization and coordination of various activities, such as the campus choir, autumn health walks, group birthday parties, and SPARK exchange meetings. He leverages his own advantages to actively encourage international faculty members to participate in these activities, promoting their rapid integration into the International Campus family. As executive director of the ZJE Innovation and Entrepreneurship Laboratory, he built an innovation and entrepreneurship incubation system from scratch, actively encouraging and leading students to participate in a range of innovation and entrepreneurship activities. Several students have won awards in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, such as the 2022 "Internet+" College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Gold Award and the 2024 iGEM Gold Award and track nomination award. As a music and sports enthusiast, he served as a club mentor for the student basketball club, the windzone music club, and the art troupe, enriching students' extracurricular life and strengthening physical and aesthetic education. As a member of the campus admissions team, he actively engages in student recruitment work, using opportunities such as academic conferences to promote recruitment and working closely with ZJU's Fujian Province recruitment team, in which his performance has been abundantly praised. In 2024, ZJE achieved significant improvement in recruitment in Fujian, largely due to his hard work.