5 prominent Chinese scholars return home after decades at top US institutions

According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, about 20,000 ethnic Chinese scientists left the United States between 2010 and 2021. That trend has continued in recent years, with several high-profile scholars returning to China in 2024 and 2025.

Mathematician Chen Min

Professor Chen Min left the Department of Mathematics at Purdue University last April to assume a full-time teaching post at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. According to the university's website, she joined the College of Science in March.

Chen earned master's degrees from both Peking University and Princeton University before completing a PhD in applied mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington in 1991. Her research focuses on nonlinear waves, numerical analysis, and computational fluid dynamics.

She was appointed a professor in 2008 and has received recognition from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Her work has been cited more than 2,000 times, according to the South China Morning Post.

Statistician Liu Jun

In September, Liu Jun, one of the world's leading statisticians and a longtime professor at Harvard University, confirmed his return to China to teach at Tsinghua University.

Tsinghua held an appointment ceremony on Sept. 7 to welcome the 63-year-old as chair professor of the Department of Statistics and Data Science. Liu spent nearly three decades at Harvard after earning his PhD in statistics from the University of Chicago in 1991. He also held faculty positions at Stanford University before returning to Harvard in 2000 as a tenured professor, a role he held until his departure.

Liu Jun (L) receives the appointment certificate from Tsinghua University President Li Luming. Photo courtesy of the university

Liu is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of multiple professional organizations, including the American Statistical Association and the International Statistical Institute. His research has made seminal contributions to Bayesian inference, computational biology, and bioinformatics.

He has received numerous honors, including the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies Presidents' Award and the Morningside Gold Medal in Applied Mathematics. Over his career, Liu has supervised more than 40 PhD students and 30 postdoctoral researchers, many of whom now work at top universities or major institutions such as Google, Microsoft, and Wall Street firms.

Engineer Zhou Ming

Zhou Ming, a pioneer of topology optimization whose work underpins industrial software used in aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380, has stepped down from a leadership role at U.S.-based engineering firm Altair.

According to the Eastern Institute of Technology's College of Engineering, Zhou became a chair professor and the college's inaugural dean in June and has begun building a research team in Ningbo. Zhou also confirmed the move on LinkedIn, describing the position as "a new chapter" in his career.

Zhou Ming in a photo posted on his LinkedIn account.

Zhou studied at Beihang University for 10 years before moving to Germany in 1988 to earn his PhD at the University of Duisburg-Essen. His work helped popularize simulation-based design, enabling critical weight-reduction solutions across the aerospace and automotive industries. The software he helped develop is also used in sectors including power generation and supercomputing.

Computer scientist Chen Jing

In January 2025, Chen Jing, a leading blockchain researcher, returned to China to become a full-time professor at Tsinghua University.

Chen earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from Tsinghua before completing her PhD at MIT in 2012 under Turing Award winner Silvio Micali. Her research focuses on the design and analysis of computer systems to improve efficiency, security, and resilience against cyberattacks.

After completing her doctorate, Chen joined Stony Brook University as an assistant professor, where her team challenged the blockchain trilemma and developed a new consensus protocol. She later served as chief scientist at Algorand Technologies and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, according to the South China Morning Post.

Chen has received multiple honors, including the U.S. National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Award. According to Tsinghua, her work will focus on advancing foundational theories to strengthen China's blockchain technology ecosystem.

Mathematical biologist Hu Yijuan

After nearly two decades in the United States, biomathematician Hu Yijuan began teaching full time in July last year at the Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research (BICMR) at Peking University.

Hu earned her undergraduate degree from Peking University in 2005 and completed her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She previously taught at Emory University, where she also served as associate director of the Center for AIDS Research Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core and received multiple grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Hu Yijuan in a photo posted on the website of Emory University

Her research focuses on developing statistical models and software to analyze high-dimensional, noisy, and biased microbiome and genetic data. She also serves as an associate editor of BMC Bioinformatics and Statistics in Biosciences and is active in several international academic associations.

According to data cited by the Global Times, the number of top scientists in China rose from about 18,800 to more than 32,500 over the five years to the end of last year, while the share of international scholars increased from 16.9% to 27.9%.

The return of prominent scholars brings not only advanced expertise but also global academic networks back to China, strengthening the country's education and technology sectors amid intensifying international competition.