College of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, was founded in 1951, originating from Department of Meteorology, Chengdu College of Meteorology. Currently, the college has a provincial key laboratory, Plateau Atmosphere and Environment Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province. There are two majors for undergraduate students, Atmospheric Science and Applied Meteorology. The major of Atmospheric Science has been rank in national level as a characteristic major and certified as provincial-level Major Comprehensive Reform Unit of 2013. The teaching team of Atmospheric Science has been approved as Province-level Teaching Team of Sichuan Province. The college was authorized to confer Master’s degree of Atmospheric Sciences as first-level discipline, which includes three second-level disciplines, as Meteorology, Climatology, Atmospheric Physics and Environment. And the second-level discipline, Meteorology, is the key discipline construction of Sichuan Province.
The undergraduate major of Atmospheric Science started from 1979, as one of the first batch of Authorized Locations of Bachelor’s Degree. The college is the committee member of geography educational guidance of Ministry of Education of PRC, the standing director member of Chinese Meteorological Society, and vice-director of Sichuan Meteorological Society. It has been certified as ‘2011 Project’ by Ministry of Education of PRC, as Chinese Synergy and Innovation Centre of Geological Hazard Prevention and Control, and Synergy and Innovation Centre of Meteorological Disaster Forecast and Warning. Besides, the undergraduate major of Atmospheric Sciences is recognized as one of the Meteorological Talent Cultivation and Training Bases cooperated with China Meteorological Administration, and it’s also the cultivation base of Atmospheric Science talents for The Second Artillery Force of the PLA.
There is an outstanding teaching and research team with reasonable structure of knowledge and age in the College of Atmospheric Sciences, including 16 professors, and 19 associate professors or doctors. The team has 4 doctoral supervisors, 28 master supervisors , 26 doctors and 5 PhD candidates. Among the full-time faculty, there are a number of distinguished experts and scholars, such as the winners of Special government allowances of the State Council, Distinguished Reviewed Experts for IPCC, committee members of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), reviewers for National Science and Technology Award, committee members of Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment of World Climate Research Project (WCRP), project reviewer of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Academic and Technology leaders of Sichuan Province, National Labor Medal Winners, experts of outstanding contribution to Sichuan Province, provincial-level outstanding young discipline leaders and so on.
So far, the college has undertaken more than 180 research projects. These include more than 50 national-level projects, supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program), Profession Special Fund, and national R&D programs. Besides, there are over 30 provincial-level projects and over 100 horizontal projects. All these projects achieves the research grant for approximately 40,000,000 RMB in total. Because of their excellent work, the researchers from the college won 10 provincial-level awards, including 4 Second-prize and 6 Third-prize respectively. Moreover, there are over 1000 papers and more than a dozen of academic monograph published.
Educational and Research Platform: Plateau Atmosphere and Environment Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Weather Analysis and Forecast Laboratory with the standard of province-level meteorological observatory; Atmospheric Simulation Laboratory, Meteorological Observation Field, and Applied Meteorology Laboratory.
College of Atmospheric Sciences has always put high value on education quality, promotion of comprehensive quality, and development of practical ability of students, in order to enhance the graduates’ competitiveness and adaption to social needs. Students have won many honors in national and provincial competitions, including the National Contest of Mathematics Models, “Challenge Cup” Science Technology Contest, National Cheerleading Competition, National English Contest for College Students, and National Physics Contest for College student. In recent years, the employment rate of graduate students of the college keeps as high as 100%, and the talent resource market demanding continues to be strong. The graduates are welcomed in meteorological industry, civil aviation, as well as army. The college brought a number of outstanding alumni including well-known academician, Distinguished Youth Scholars and leaders in Meteorological Bureau, and so on. In conclusion, College of Atmospheric Sciences has transported a large pool of high-level meteorological science and technology leaders, management staff and business backbones for the research, teaching and business sections of meteorology, national defense, civil aviation and environment protection area in our country.