188宝金博页面版

Conferment of the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causaA CitationDr Song Jian, LHD (Hon), BEng, PhD, DScIn 1990, the eminent Chinese scientist Dr Song Jian was invited to make a presentation on scientific research by the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. In fluent Russian, he discoursed on three topics, namely optimal control, population control and systems control described by partial differential equations. While these are three disparate areas of studies, Dr Song approached them from a macro angle and delved deeply into each of these three topics, at the same time piecing together his findings and observations seamlessly and cogently, upon which he then propounded his own views and theories. This was received with tremendous praise and applause from all present, and the chairman of the assembly remarked that the great learning of Dr Song should have earned him three doctorates, although on that occasion the University could only present Dr Song with a Doctor of Science degree, in recognition of his great achievements in higher learning. In point of fact this award in Moscow was only the conferment of a degree late by thirty years. Dr Song had early pursued advanced studies in the then Soviet Union, and had completed his doctoral thesis at the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School in 1960. However, with the gradual deterioration of Sino-Russian relations at the time, Dr Song gave up the expected degree and returned to China where he had since been committed to the development of science and technology programmes.The development of science and technology in China had gained great momentum since the 1960’s, and the fundamental theoretical framework that had cast the greatest influence on this growth was the so-called control theory. Nowadays our research in disciplines such as systems engineering, life sciences and artificial intelligence is all based on the control theory. We make use of the transmission and feedback of information to facilitate the control or usage of matters, but there are so many modes of control and it is a new challenge to scientists as to which modes of control are more worthy, and which one of them would yield the best results. This newly developed pursuit in science is known as optimal control theory. Dr Song is a foremost authority on the subject and has made significant contribution to research in this discipline. As early as the 1960’s, he succeeded in providing solutions to hard-to-manage theoretical problems such as stability, point-wise observation and point control of systems. In the 1970’s he revised the book titled Engineering Cybernetics by Professor Qian Xuesen with his input based on expanded and more intense research, and advanced the study of cybernetics to new heights. The fruit of his research has been successfully applied to national defence constructions, remarkably in the design of the control system for the first generation of antiballistic missiles in China. In 1980 he participated in the overall design of a new type of missile fired from submarines, and has since been leading research and development in science and technology at the national level for the past three decades.Research in optimal control theory has proved to be of tremendous application value in the management of social problems. As a leader of the country, Dr Song Jian has been