Philosophy in Science and Technology and History of Science and Technology are two major subject areas of Shanxi University and Technology.  In the year 1995, the subject of Philosophy in Science and Technology was appointed as one of the key subjects of Shanxi Province, which established doctorate program in the year 1998, and was approved as one of the key researching bases of human science by the Ministry of Education in September, 2000.

　　In January 2002, the subject was recognized as one of the key national subjects by the State Council.  The subject of History of Science and Technology was approved to establish doctorate program as a Class I subject of the nation level in August 2003, and in September 2003 a post doctorate researching station was set up in the subject.

　　Established in 1978, the Research Center for Philosophy in Science and Technology of Shanxi University was reorganized in January 2000, with professor Guo Guichun as the Director.  Under the research center, there are six sub organizations, namely the Researching Group of Philosophy in Science, the Researching Group of Philosophy in Technology and STS, the Researching Group of the History of Science and Scientific Ideology, the Editing Office of the academic periodical of Science, Technology and Dialectics, the Library and Information Department and the Comprehensive Management Office.  The center enjoys first level researching facilities, including researching offices for professionals, one academic lecturing hall, one academic conference hall and etc, with a total construction area of over 600 square meters.  The Library and Information Department enjoys a total construction area of 225 square meters, with 27,000 books in Chinese, 6,100 books in foreign languages and 128 periodicals both in Chinese and foreign languages.  Among the books in foreign languages, some are very valuable reserves rarely found in China, such as the Poston Books in Philosophy of Science.  Each of the researching professionals of the center has an office equipped with internet and other modern academic researching facilities.  The Academic Lecturing Hall is equipped with modern multi-media facilities.  The total equipment value of the center totals over 6 million RMB Yuan.

　　The Center adopts an advanced mechanism for researching and teaching, with altogether 15 regulations defining the professional retaining mechanism, awarding and punishment mechanism, leading scientist mechanism and etc.  These regulations successfully ensured the nurturing of creativity and academic freedom, which consequently ensured the sustainable development of the center as a Key National Researching Base.

　　The Center has a researching team of reasonable structure and high qualifications.  Among them, there are 15 researching professionals and 13 researching fellows, 26 of which hold professorship, 2 hold associate professorship, 19 doctorate tutors and 26 master degree program tutors. With an average age of 51, the stuff of the center come from Beijing University, Qinghua University, China People’s University, North-East China University, Nanjing University, Zhongshan University, Shanxi University and etc.  Some of them are renowned experts and scholars, some are eminent young and middle aged professionals.  The team spirit essential for undertaking key researching programs as an organized team is optimized by a reasonable structure of educational background, scholastic background, academic title structure and age structure.

　　With over two decades of development, the Center now has established not only after graduate programs and master’s degree programs, but also doctorate degree programs and post doctorate programs. There has been altogether 2 post doctorate program students,    doctorate students, 186 master program students and 320 after graduate program students graduated from the center.  Among the graduates, 32 have obtained professorship or associate professorship, many of which have become doctorate tutors.

　　The fruitful researching works of the center have been widely accredited in the academic field for its advantageous characteristics.  There are presently three major researching fields covering all the three stipulated subject classes, namely philosophy in science, philosophy in technology and history of science and scientific ideology.  Researching programs in these directions covers not only fundamental academic assignments, but also applied and policy oriented assignments.  Science the year 1996, the center has undertaken altogether 98 researching assignments, with a total researching fee of over 6 million Yuan. More than 100 academic monographs and over 600 researching papers have been published and over 40 provincial, ministerial and national academic awards have been obtained by the researching professionals of the Center.  These research programs and achievements manifested not only the academic advancement in the national society, but also the international researching advancements and tendencies.  In fact, the very characteristics and researching style of the center proved one of the major qualifications for the center to be appointed as one of the national key researching bases.

　　The Center also exerted sufficient efforts to foster international academic exchange and conference. As one of the three major periodicals in the field of Philosophy in Science and Technology and accredited as a key international academic publication, Science, Technology and Dialectics not only undertakes the assignment of introducing the current researching advancements to the international community, but also acts as an important channel of academic exchange between the Center and the international researching societies.  In the past ten decade, the Center has successfully organized one to two international academic conference each year.

　　The Center has been maintaining long term cooperative relationships with many national and international academic researching institutions. Foothold at the Shanxi University, providing service for all the walks of the society and persisting in international modern researching advancement has always been the primary objective of this key national researching base.

　　Contact Information:

　　36 Wucheng Lu,

　　Taiyuan, 030006

　　P. R. China

　　Tel: (0351)-7010733

　　Fax：(0351)-7018220

　　http://www.rcpstsxu.com.cn

　　Email: rcpst@sxu.edu.cn