His schedule has been completely full: a business tour to Jiangyin of Jiangsu Province, listening to students at Fudan University, attending the on-going session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, and constant demands for interviews from reporters.

"But I like to be busy - a quick rhythm in life is good for me," said Yang.

The 65-year-old man is in the limelight in China after his appointment to replace Lord Dearing, who retired as the chancellor of the University of Nottingham.

Yang, a nuclear physicist, was born in Shanghai in 1936.

Graduated from the Department of Physics, Fudan University, in 1958, he has worked as professor and president of Fudan University; as well as director of the Shanghai Institute of Nuclear Research, before he accepted the invitation from the UK university.

The appointment generated excitement among the Chinese because Yang, former president of Fudan University, is the first Chinese chancellor appointed to a prestigious Western university.

"My driver in Nottingham, a man from Hong Kong, told me he felt proud when he heard on the radio that a native Chinese had become the chancellor of a British university," said Yang.

"The University of Nottingham is internationalized, and we hoped to appoint a chancellor with an international character," said Mr Campbell, vice-president of the university. "Yang enjoys a high-profile reputation in the scientific field and has rich experience of working in foreign countries."

Campbell said Yang will represent the university on the international stage.

Founded in 1881, the University of Nottingham is one of the top universities in the United Kingdom.

It has an enrolment of more than 18,000 undergraduate students, about 4,000 graduate students and 1,800 overseas students.

Yang received the invitation from the University of Nottingham in October last year, according to Chen Hong, Yang's secretary.

The university board selected him from among several other international candidates.

The official inaugural ceremony will be held this July, the tradition of the university. The long black robe for the chancellor, with golden embroidery and a green ribbon attached to it, is also ready.

It is not the first time Yang has received an invitation from a foreign institution.

In 1987, he was invited to do cooperative research at Tokyo University. It was said he was paid the highest salary for a foreign professor in Japan at that time. But Yang quickly returned home when he received an invitation from a domestic institution.

"China is the origin of the world in my heart," said Yang. "It is where I want to follow my pursuits."

Yang said he has three main tasks as chancellor of the University of Nottingham, including presiding over board meetings and discussing key problems, presiding over graduation ceremonies and participating in international activities on behalf of Nottingham.

"The British attach greater importance to the graduation ceremony than the Chinese," Yang said. "That's one difference between Chinese universities and their British counterparts."

In Chinese universities, diplomas are sent to students by their teachers without formal ceremony.

In Britain, all chancellors, teachers and students attend the ceremony in official robes. The chancellor hands a diploma to every student because it is an important event for students after years of study.

At the University of Nottingham, it takes nine days for the chancellor to hand out all the diplomas. "I feel so sorry that I didn't do it at Fudan University," said Yang. "We save time but students feel they miss out."

"With economic globalization, international education has also become a trend," said Yang. "What I want to do is to help Chinese universities play a more active role on the international stage."

Yang said his attendance at the International Association of University Presidents, whose members represent universities from around the world, and being the chancellor of a Western university, were opportunities to promote Chinese universities.

"The more you show yourself on the international stage, the more you can be understood and recognized," said Yang. "It is the same for Chinese universities."

Yang said he will go to Nottingham in June. He will shuttle back and forth between Britain and China. Nottingham will also send staff to China every year.

"It's impossible for me to stay in Britain for a whole year," said Yang, who is also the president of Bell University, in East China's Jiangyin of Jiangsu Province, Zhonglu-Bohr Professor of Physics, and the Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

As a nuclear physicist, Yang has organized the Laboratory of Accelerator-Based Atomic and Nuclear Physics.

His scientific achievements include devising a formula for nuclear decay, which has been used in industry and has resulted in a universal formula for nuclear half-life measurements. He has also made advances in resonant absorption research and studies in the field of ion-beam analysis.

Among his many titles, Yang said academician is his favorite.

"Because the selection of academicians is fair and strict, the title is a high recognition of my academic achievement," said Yang.

Yang said his favorite pastime is teaching.

"As a teacher, my task is not to fill the student's brain with knowledge," said Yang. "Students are not a container waiting to be filled, but a torch to be lit. What we should do is to develop their potential."

Yang said he plans to give lessons in English to sophomores of the Physics Department in Fudan University this year.

(China Daily 03/05/2001)