DING Qiliang is a university student keen on probing the use of bioinformatics in human evolution studies.

That somewhat esoteric field of study is at the cutting edge of biological science. Ding is a perfect example of the kind of talent China wants to identify and nurture in its quest for a new generation of innovators.

Ding is one of 5,500 participants in the nation’s Topnotch Talent pilot program. In 2009, the Ministry of Education implemented the program in 19 of China’s most prestigious universities, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University and Jiao Tong University.

In part, the project was designed to answer the famous question posed by the eminent late scientist Qian Xuesen: Why do our universities fail to cultivate innovative talent?

The program allocates 100,000 yuan (US$16,000) in funding for each student accepted for enrollment and gives them access to advanced research facilities and top professors from at home and abroad.

Enrollment is drawn from undergraduate students wanting to do research in mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and computer sciences.

Ding entered Fudan University’s Life Sciences School in 2009.

“Biology is rather experiment oriented,” he said. “We all wanted to dive into lab work as early as possible.”

Pipe dream

That’s pretty much a pipe dream for most undergraduates, who have limited access to laboratories for independent research — a realm mostly reserved for postgraduate students in China.

Undergraduates have to find their own professors if they want access, and even then, they are often relegated to lab assistant work for postgraduates.

Fudan officially launched its Topnotch Talent pilot program in 2010. All students are free to apply, providing they can persuade the assessment panel of senior professors to accept them.

Ding succeeded in securing a place when he was a sophomore. There are another 17 biology students in the program that year.

“We greeted each other by asking, ‘What experiment are you working on?’” said Ding, with a shy smile.

The program not only provides these budding researchers with a platform to work but also the opportunity to expand their minds.

“The 18 of us in Topnotch Talent at the Life Sciences School were given some 20 advisors, which means that students have more opportunities to explore their research interests by interacting with various scholars,” Ding said.

The time spent in laboratory research paid off. Ding published a scientific article on human evolutionary genetics as first author and another as the second author when he was still an undergraduate.

He was sent to the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas on an exchange program in the summer of 2012, where he further developed his understanding on the use of bioinformatics in human evolution studies.

That became the focus of his later research. Ding will be pursuing his doctorate at Washington University later this year.

Exhilarating experience

According to the Ministry of Education, 95 percent of Topnotch undergraduates pursued postgraduate diplomas in institutions such as Stanford University, Columbia University, Hongkong University, Peking University and Fudan University.

Li Zongyuan, a mathematics undergraduate who joined Topnotch in 2011 as a sophomore at Fudan, said the experience has been exhilarating.

With the support of Topnotch, the School of Mathematics is providing more than 30 after-class workshops where participants meet with professors to discuss all study areas. Other students are welcome to attend.

“Of my 180 math classmates, about 40 regularly attended the workshops, which is twice the program quota for math students,” said Li.

He said the sessions help fire up the creativity of students. As a prizewinner of many math contests, Li contributed his knowledge to the workshops.

“We don’t have special training for math competitions, but things we discussed and learned in the workshops helped prepare us,” said Li.

In 2014, This year, Li will complete his undergraduate study at Fudan. After returning from a one-year exchange program at Oxford University, he has just received a full scholarship from that university to pursue a PhD.

“In the past, pure mathematics was overshadowed by related disciplines,” said Yao Yijuan, an associate professor of mathematics of Fudan University.

“Many math students switched to computer sciences after graduation. Some chose math in preparation to study finance.

“But now, one-third of our graduates are pursuing postgraduate study in math in China, and another one-third are doing that overseas,” said Yao.

Li agreed that pure math is now coming into its own.

“At first I wanted to learn computer sciences after math, but after discussions with experts, I found that pure mathematical theories are more interesting,” he said.

“So I decided to dive into pure mathematics in the second term of my junior year.”

He said the exchange program at Oxford really opened his eyes to new possibilities.

“I had the opportunity to look at cutting-edge subjects, some of which we didn’t have at Fudan,” Li said.

“It was also an excellent opportunity to become immersed in a different educational system, a different culture.”

Oxford called his “comprehensive capability” among the top 10 of math students at the university.

Though the Topnotch allocation for Fudan is 80 students a year, the program there is developing a wider platform that may assist up to 200 students, with the cooperative support of related departments of the university, according to Xu Lei, director of academic affairs at Fudan.

“We do not require a specified number of published articles or successful contest results for participants,” he said.

“Professors and money alone don’t cultivate innovative talent. We want to inspire students to explore and create new ideas in fundamental science research. This is a long-term program.

We don’t want to limit our students by numbers, said Xu.

As for the examples of Ding and Li, Xu added: “We are happy when we see success stories like them. We just want to nurture more of them.”