Jointly organized by Higher Education Press and our school, "With Theme of Creating More Glory on the Basis of Inheriting the Classics, Forum to Commemorate the 61th Anniversary of the Publication of Higher Mathematics edited by Tongji University" was held on June 3^rd. SU Yuheng, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Higher Education Press, XU Jianping, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of our school, and more than 40 representatives from Higher Education Press and colleges and universities attended the forum.

At the meeting, XU Jianping recalled his experience in learningHigher Mathematicsedited by Tongji University and teaching Pure Mathematics. Then he said that generation after generation of Tongji scholars with Professor FAN Yingchuan as the pioneer, made outstanding contributions to the advanced mathematics teaching in China's science and engineering. Today, we will continue to build on the foundation of our predecessors, and further cooperate with our peers in fraternal universities and colleges to adapt to the requirements of the new era and continuously optimize the basic mathematics education in universities of science and engineering.

In his speech, SU Yuheng first thanked all the experts and scholars who participated in the edition of textbook. He said thatHigher Mathematics edited by Tongji University is one of the excellent textbooks with Chinese characteristics edited by Chinese colleges and universities since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. And it can be regarded as a monument in the history of publication of Chinese science and technology books and Chinese higher education. Looking back on the course of 61 years, we can see that this set of textbook, insisting on prioritizing social benefits, is a model for achieving the integration of social benefits and economic benefits. It is a model showing that universities, teachers and publishers keep their original intentions, continue to struggle, and pioneer innovation. It is a model that follows the laws of teaching and textbooks edition and it is continuously improved through practice. This experience deserves to be recapitulated, inherited and carried forward.

In the forum, Professor YE Zhiming, former vice president of Shanghai University, mentioned the series ofTextbooks on Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry learned in his youth and theLecture Notes on Higher Mathematics edited by Professor FAN Yingchuan. He showed these books and exercise books one by one, and people seemed to see their old times on the screen. Those neat exercise books brought every senior in the forum to that period of time.

XU Xuejun, the dean of our school, introduced that Tongji people have been following the path pioneered by Professor FAN Yingchuan for decades. First-class university research must be supported by first-class mathematics. It is based on this consideration that the school has set up a Advanced Mathematics Teaching Center, which will unite the strength of the fraternal units, including the Higher Education Press, to study the new needs of new engineering, artificial intelligence, and big data under the new era background, working hard on the vividness and timeliness of the textbooks, and striving for further improvement.

Higher Mathematicsedited by Tongji University is one of the classic textbooks published by Higher Education Press. Since theLecture Notes on Higher Mathematics edited by Professor FAN Yingchuan was published in 1958 andHigher Mathematics edited chiefly by Mathematics Teaching and Research Section of Tongji University was published in 1978, the textbook has been published in 9 editions, with a total circulation of more than 60 million copies. Selling well for 61 years and widely welcomed by readers, it created a legend of the publication and application of textbooks in China.Lecture Notes on Higher Mathematics is one of the excellent textbooks with Chinese characteristics edited by Chinese scholars since the founding of People’s Republic of China. It created the precedent of editing basic mathematics textbooks in science and engineering in a Chinese way, which can be called a monument in the history of the publication of Chinese science and technology books and the history of Chinese higher education.Higher Mathematics is the most widely used and most influential textbook of "Higher Mathematics" in China. It has played an important historical role in the teaching of university mathematics courses in China. It also plays an important role in the development of basic mathematics disciplines, the influence of related disciplines and the cultivation of talents after the founding of People’s Republic of China.

There were also some representatives attending the forum coming from more than ten universities including East China Normal University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In the forum, our school and the Higher Education Press signed a cooperation agreement.