Southampton Education School’s Professor Lianghuo Fan has been awarded Distinguished Overseas Professor, a distinguished visiting professorship by East China Normal University (ECNU). Located in Shanghai, China, ECNU is a top Chinese university and one of the two best universities in educational science. According to ECNU, the award was given to Professor Fan in recognition of his “outstanding international reputation” in research and scholarship.

Professor Fan got his MSc from East China Normal University and PhD from the University of Chicago, USA. He has extensive experience in education and research in China, USA, Singapore and now UK. His expertise is often sought out by governmental bodies in different countries, research organizations/universities and media outlets including recently BBC, Sky News, CNBC, and Prospect. In the last month, Professor Fan delivered a research seminar on teacher knowledge development at Oxford University and two keynote speeches on mathematics curriculum reform from international perspectives at the First Conference of Chinese Mathematics Educators in Beijing and on the impact of ICT on mathematics textbook development in Taiwan, respectively. At Southampton Education School, Professor Fan serves as Head of Mathematics and Science Education Research Centre. He is currently organizing, as Chair of the International Programme Committee, the International Conference on Mathematics Textbook Research and Development to be held 29-31 July 2014 on the campus of the University of Southampton, which has attracted many top researchers from all over the world.

Southampton Education School and ECNU’s School of Education Science have established close collaboration over recent years. “I feel honoured to be awarded the distinguished visiting professorship by East China Normal University, my alma mater, and I hope in this visiting capacity I can help further strengthen the collaboration between the University of Southampton and ECNU, particularly in educational research, teaching and graduate education”, says Professor Fan.