On July 12, 2022, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council announced the list of additional disciplines authorized to offer doctoral degree programs in 2022, including Atmospheric Sciences in Tsinghua University. This marked an important milestone in the development of Earth system science in Tsinghua University.

Addressing the Earth’s atmosphere and its interaction with other spheres of the earth system and human activities, Atmospheric Sciences studies the movement and change law of the Earth's atmosphere, the formation mechanism of weather and climate related to this change, the influence of other spheres of the earth system and human activities on weather and climate changes, and how to use Atmospheric Sciences theories and technologies to serve mankind. As an ancient discipline, Atmospheric Sciences originated from the 17th to 18th centuries. It is also a dynamic and rapidly developing discipline. With the application of high-performance computing and modern atmospheric sounding and observing methods, especially the establishment of the concept of global climate system, the research scope of Atmospheric Sciences is constantly expanding, increasingly involving interactions with other spheres of the Earth system and human activities, as well as a series of issues such as the environment, economy, politics and diplomacy.

The discipline of Atmospheric Sciences in Tsinghua University boasts a long-standing and glorious tradition. As early as 1928, the Department of Geography was established in Tsinghua University, which was renamed the Department of Geoscience in 1932, with three teams: Geography, Geology and Meteorology. In 1946, the Meteorological Team became independent to establish the Department of Meteorology of Tsinghua University. The Tsinghua Geoscience Discipline had trained a number of famous scholars and professional elites for China, making important contributions to national defense, frontier development and meteorological enterprise.

Tsinghua University established the Center For Earth System Science (hereinafter referred to as the CESS) in March 2009, based on which the Department of Earth System Science (hereinafter referred to as the DESS) was established in November 2016. In 2011, Atmospheric Sciences in Tsinghua University was officially approved as a First-Level Discipline authorized to offer a master’s degree program, which passed special evaluation in 2015. In 2021, Tsinghua University agreed to establish Atmospheric Sciences as a First-Level Discipline authorized to offer a doctoral degree program.

Since the establishment of the master's degree program, as one of the main supporting disciplines for the reconstruction of earth system science studies in Tsinghua University, Atmospheric Sciences has seen rapid development, having built a teaching and research team with international influence. Adhering to the fundamental task of moral education, the discipline upholds the educational concept of integrating “value shaping, skill training and knowledge impartment” in the process of education and teaching, and implements ideological and political education in curriculum and tutoring. On the basis of observing the general law of talent training in Atmospheric Sciences, with reference to the advanced practices of high-level universities at home and abroad, and in the light of the characteristics of students in Tsinghua University, the concept of talent training and scientific research with equal attention to "scientific research" and "social service" has been developed, and a complete postgraduate training scheme and a curriculum system have been formulated. Meanwhile, the rich doctoral training experience from the Discipline of Atmospheric Ocean under the First-Level Doctoral Degree Program of Ecology has provided a sound foundation for the further development of Atmospheric Sciences. Over the past five years, nearly 50 graduate students have been trained, whose choices after graduation included pursuing doctoral degrees at Harvard University, Princeton University, Max Planck Institute of Chemistry and other world-renowned institutions, employment with key units such as the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the China Meteorological Bureau, or development and management work in well-known domestic enterprises. Faculty members of the discipline of Atmospheric Science publish more than 100 SCI-indexed papers every year, including many journal papers in Nature and its series, PNAS, etc. More than 30 papers have been rated as ESI highly cited papers. China's multi-scale emission inventory model, super-computing application based on Sunway-TaihuLight Supercomputer won the "Gordon Bell" Award, the highest award for super-computing application in the world, and three research results including the domestic Earth system model coupler were selected into the National Scientific and Technological Innovation Achievement Exhibition in the 13th Five-Year Plan.

The discipline construction of Atmospheric Sciences in Tsinghua University presents distinctive features. First, we adhere to the orientation of original basic research, driven by the development and improvement of the Earth system model, and combine observation and simulation to carry out world-leading research. Second, we persist in tackling key technical problems around the country's major strategic needs, having scored a number of research achievements directly related to ecological progress in the fields of carbon neutrality, global climate change and human health, air pollution and its treatment, providing strong support for government decision-making. Third, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research, we carry out interdisciplinary research in conjunction with related disciplines such as supercomputing, economics, public health, urban ecology, etc., and draw on the advantages of Computer Science and Environmental Science of Tsinghua University to grow together.

The Doctoral Program of Atmospheric Sciences in Tsinghua University aims at training leading talents of Atmospheric Sciences equipped with a solid basic theoretical foundation, a strong sense of social responsibility, a broad global vision, excellent scientific thinking skills, independent innovation ability and scientific research competence, who, distinguished by both political and academic integrity, dare to tackle major scientific challenges. Currently, the discipline has two research directions, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics and Atmospheric Environment.

The DESS, Tsinghua University will take the opportunity of the approval of Atmospheric Sciences as a first-level discipline authorized to offer a doctoral program to further promote the discipline construction highly in line with the medium-and long-term development goal of Tsinghua University's as a world class university and the basic needs of the national science and technology development strategy. Targeting the international discipline frontier and major national research needs, we will fully leverage the interdisciplinary advantages of natural science and social science, engineering science and management science in Tsinghua University, and recruit top-notch talents to further improve our high-quality faculty. With a focus on comprehensive and systematic research in the fields of Earth system model, global climate change, disaster prevention and mitigation, carbon emission and carbon neutralization, air pollution control and human health, we strive to build a world class discipline of Atmospheric Sciences with distinctive features, in our endeavor to make greater contributions to the country's high-level scientific and technological independence.

Written by Xu Meng

Edited by Wang Jiayin

Reviewed by Luo Yong and Zhang Qiang