This year marks the 100th anniversary of Nankai University's biology discipline. Recently, the College of Life Sciences has officially released the anniversary logo.

The logo is composed of two representative elements, i.e. "DNA topology structure" in biology discipline and "number of the year". "1" is formed by adding year span to the DNA chain structure, and "0" is formed by planarizing the "DNA double helix structure", both of which contributes to the graphic change process of "100".  The ends of the chain topology symbolize important milestones in the development of Nankai University's biology discipline.  

Biology discipline was one of the disciplines launched by Nankai when the University was founded. The founders Yan Xiu and Chang Poling initiated the universities with three comprehensive disciplines, i.e. liberal arts, science and business with the philosophy of "arts to govern the country, science to strengthen the country, and business to enrich the country". Biology Discipline was subordinate to science. In 1922, the Department of Biology was launched. which was one of the earliest of its kind among Chinese universities, marking the official establishment of biology discipline at Nankai University.

In June of 1993, the College of Life Sciences was established based on the Department of Biology and the Institute of Molecular Biology, which laid an important foundation for the further integration and development of biology discipline. The discipline was listed among the national key discipline construction project in 1998, and became a doctoral degree authorization site in 2000. Since entering the 21st century, Nankai University’s biology has developed rapidly. Microbiology and zoology have become national key disciplines, and botany has become a national key construction discipline. Biology and biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics, botany and zoology as well as microbiology have successively become world-leading disciplines in ESI (top 1%). 

The College of Life Sciences will hold a series of commemorative activities themed academic exchanges, cultural heritage, alumni development, etc., in July of 2022.

(Edited and translated by Nankai News Team)