Dean Cheng Siwei, the former Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Congress and a famous economist in China, passed away on July 12 at the age of 80. He was the Dean and the PhD Supervisor of School of Management, UCAS, the Director of CAS Research Center on Fictitious Economy and Data Science. All faculty and students of the School of Management are mourning with deep grief about this loss.
Professor Cheng Siwei was born in Beijing in June 1935 and graduated from University of California at Los Angeles in 1984. His main research in the field of management and economics involves decision science, virtual economy, entrepreneurship, venture capital and virtual business. He studied complex science and was committed to solve the problems of the economic reform and development of the Chinese economy. He established the system of virtual economy theory and applied it to China's financial reform and practice. Because of his active study and promotion of the development of entrepreneurship, venture capital and virtual business in China, he is praised as "the Father of Venture Capital in China". Professor Cheng Siwei enjoys a high academic status in the field of international economics, and is widely respected within both academic and business circles all over the world. He won the Global Personality Award awarded by the International Council of Canada in 2008; the Outstanding Chinese Award awarded by the Committee of 100 of the US in 2010; the "Chang Lin Tien Distinguished Scholar Award" awarded by the Asia Foundation in 2011; and the "Lifetime Achievement Award" awarded by the Fudan Premium Fund of Management in 2014.
Professor Cheng Siwei has served as Dean of the School of Management of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences since September 2002. During that period, he has made a great contribution to the development of the School. He was personally involved in the development strategy of the School, and was committed to make the school a first-class research-oriented business school with international influence. Under his leadership, four MBA programs of the School (full-time MBA, part-time MBA, Financial MBA and Enterpreneurial MBA) were accredited by the Association of MBA. This was the first international business school accreditation that the School of Management got, internationally recognizing the quality of the MBA education of the School and putting it on the list of world-class business schools.
Over the years, Professor Cheng Siwei has actively promoted the construction and development of innovation and entrepreneurship, finance and other related disciplines of the School. He encouraged the exchange and cooperation between the School and well-kown foreign universities and research institutions, and paid attention to the training and education of young teachers and graduate students of the School. He hosted financial seminars every two weeks and opened several courses for the students, such as economics, finance and economics tailored to the Chinese situation.
Professor Cheng Siwei once said, “There is no need to require too much from others, however, I decided to spare no effort in the performance of my duty”. He carried out his promise in practice. He used his profound knowledge and rational thought for providing advice and suggestions about national development and made an outstanding contribution to economic and social development, training young talents, and exploring frontier theory. All his life has been dedicated to the reform and development of China.
Professor Cheng Siwei will be immortal.
