Nominees for the People of Distinction | HUANG Wenwen: Connecting Classrooms with Frontiers, Cultivating Diverse Interdisciplinary Talent Growth

Huang Wenwen serves as a tenured Associate Professor at the Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE). Since joining in October 2018, she has always adhered to a student-growth-centered approach, devoting herself wholeheartedly to education, teaching, and talent cultivation. She is deeply engaged in undergraduate teaching, continuously promoting curriculum development, teaching reform, and optimization of the training system, forming a digital-intelligent and internationalized teaching characteristic, with related courses recognized as provincial first-class courses. She values students' individual development, guiding students to achieve landmark breakthroughs in international competitions, research innovation, and further study development. She continuously participates in the construction of the China-UK dual degree training system and, as a core member, participates in building the new Intelligent Medical Engineering major, promoting the establishment of a systematic and sustainably improving undergraduate teaching system, and facilitating the interdisciplinary integration of medicine, engineering, and artificial intelligence, expanding new space for internationalized interdisciplinary talent cultivation. For her, education is not only about transmitting knowledge but also about helping students enhance their abilities, clarify their direction, and find a development path that suits them.

I. Cultivating Talent Through "Teaching": Deepening Classroom and Class Engagement, Consolidating the Foundation for Student Growth

Huang Wenwen has long worked on the frontline of undergraduate teaching, adhering to the educational philosophy of "student-growth-centered," emphasizing both knowledge transmission and ability cultivation. She lectures on multiple undergraduate and graduate courses including "Advanced Mathematics." In response to the internationalized and interdisciplinary training characteristics of ZJE's Biomedical Science and Bioinformatics majors, she continuously optimizes course content and teaching methods, combining abstract mathematical theory with biomedical application scenarios, and helping students understand knowledge and master methods of analyzing problems through cases, discussions, and interaction. Students are deeply impressed by her "clear, detailed, and patient" teaching style. Biomedical Science student Wang Huitong stated: "Her patient lecturing and guidance laid a solid mathematical foundation for me." Huang Wenwen particularly values the impact of lower-year foundational courses on students' subsequent development. She paid early attention to the impact of artificial intelligence on higher education and proactively promoted the integration of AI with foundational course teaching, leading the Zhejiang University undergraduate "AI Empowerment" demonstration course construction project, applying artificial intelligence to learning support, exercise feedback, and teaching improvement, accumulating practical experience for the digital-intelligent teaching reform of foundational courses. Her lecture course "Advanced Mathematics" was recognized as a Zhejiang Provincial Internationalized First-Class Offline Undergraduate Course, and she herself received the Third Prize in the Zhejiang University Teacher Teaching Innovation Competition. The courses she participated in building, "Introduction to Bioinformatics 1" and "Integrated Biomedical Science 1," were both recognized as provincial first-class courses. The textbooks she co-edited, "General Chemistry Experiments (English Edition)" and "Medical Silk Materials," were respectively selected for Zhejiang Province's "14th Five-Year" Key Textbook for Regular Undergraduate Universities and the "15th Five-Year" Regular Higher Education Undergraduate Planning Textbook.

Beyond the classroom, she has served as a class mentor and academic advisor since 2019, extending education throughout students' entire university growth process. During her time as mentor of Class BMS1901, she continuously paid attention to students' professional adaptation, academic development, research interests, and further study planning. The class achieved a 93% further study rate, with 60% entering global TOP30 universities. She herself received honors including Zhejiang University Outstanding Class Mentor and International Campus Outstanding Class Mentor. As an undergraduate Academic Advisor, she provides personalized guidance based on student characteristics. One student who once faced academic difficulties gradually improved their learning state under her continuous guidance and ultimately received direct doctoral admission to Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Relying on the academic advisor system established early by the institute, she integrates individual guidance into the entire undergraduate training process, providing referenceable experience for other institutions to improve their all-staff mentorship systems.

II. Educating Through "Research": Research Feeding Back into Teaching, Letting Students Grow Through Practical Innovation

Huang Wenwen insists on making research an important classroom for education, encouraging undergraduates to enter laboratories early and participate in frontier research problem exploration. Undergraduate Yu Bo started from a research training project, gradually participated in soft robotics drug delivery research, subsequently participated as second author in publishing an Advanced Science inside cover paper, and became one of the inventors of a related invention patent. For her, the value of undergraduate research lies not only in producing results but also in helping students gradually build the ability to think independently and solve problems. The same applies to team innovation training. Since 2023, she has guided the undergraduate iGEM team, guiding students through key node discussions to clarify scientific questions and refine plans. In 2024, the team won a global gold medal; in 2025, it further achieved global third place in the undergraduate section, a gold medal, and multiple individual awards, refreshing Zhejiang University's best historical performance in this competition over the past decade, with related achievements selected for Zhejiang University's "Qizhen Cup" Top Ten Student Academic New Achievements.

For graduate students, she emphasizes moving from "participating in research" to "independent research" while respecting students' different development choices and life rhythms. Doctoral student Ji Ting responded to the call to "take root at the grassroots and dedicate to the west," going to Northwest Normal University as a high-level talent from home and abroad. Dual-degree doctoral student Nie Kexin joined WuXi XDC as a senior engineer, transforming research training into industrial R&D capability. Doctoral student Zhao Xing joined a provincial laboratory as an assistant researcher, continuing research work. Master's student Yang Xinyi chose to become a selected graduate, entering the Dalian Disabled Persons' Federation in Liaoning Province to serve society and people's livelihoods. At the same time, she also pays attention to students' practical needs at different life stages. Doctoral student Zhang Kaiyue married and had a child during her doctoral studies, receiving necessary support and coordination while ensuring training quality, ultimately completing her doctoral studies on schedule and entering the Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for postdoctoral research. From universities and research institutes to enterprises and public service positions, students have embarked on distinctive development paths. She hopes that research training brings students not only papers and experimental skills but also the ability to think independently, choose careers, and serve society.

III. Expanding Through "Integration": From Educating Students Well to Building Majors Well, Expanding Space for Medicine-Engineering Interdisciplinary Training

Based on long-term teaching and student cultivation, Huang Wenwen, as Assistant to the Dean, further participates in the institute's talent cultivation system construction. Facing changes in the international cooperative education environment and the needs of the institute's major layout development, she, as a core member, participates in building the new Intelligent Medical Engineering major, undertaking expert demonstration reports, major filing, China-UK cooperation agreement revision, and other work, advancing the new major from training program design to application and implementation, and promoting the institute to form an internationalized interdisciplinary talent cultivation pattern of coordinated development among "Biomedical Science, Bioinformatics, and Intelligent Medical Engineering."

She has long participated in admissions and student selection work, once serving as head of the ZJE Hebei Admissions Group, currently serving as head of the Shanghai Admissions Group, and deeply participating in admissions work in Beijing, Guangdong, and other places, receiving honors including Outstanding Individual in Admissions Work and Advanced Collective, further extending talent cultivation to the student source entrance. She also participates in regular co-construction between ZJE and Haining Senior High School, relying on the Biomed-X Innovation and Entrepreneurship Laboratory to co-build experimental courses, extending high-quality university educational resources to the basic education stage, and providing support for the early cultivation of top-notch innovative talents in Haining.

From classroom to laboratory, from student cultivation to major construction, Huang Wenwen always centers on student growth, insisting on "consolidating the foundation through teaching, inspiring innovation through research, and expanding training space through interdisciplinary and international cooperation." What she hopes to cultivate is not only outstanding students but also young talents capable of independent thinking, courageous innovation, and shouldering responsibilities.