How China turned an old cement plant into a global home for mathematicians

Bimsa in China's Beijing, once a cement factory, has quickly become a global centre for mathematics, drawing top researchers from many countries working from geometry to quantum fields

In northern Beijing, a calm and focused academic world is taking shape. On a campus built on what used to be a cement factory, researchers from many countries meet every day to discuss maths, work on difficult problems and share ideas. The Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (Bimsa) has quickly grown into a major global centre for mathematics, according to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

 

Bimsa sits beside Yanqi Lake, surrounded by mountains and close enough to the Great Wall to see it on a clear day. Inside its sunlit rooms, mathematicians from countries including Ukraine and Russia, nations currently in conflict. Their conversations range from geometry and algebra to quantum fields and string theory.

 

 

The campus now hosts more than 200 full-time researchers, about one-third of whom are from outside China. Its funding comes jointly from the Beijing municipal government and Tsinghua University, enabling competitive salaries that range between 700,000 yuan and 3.5 million yuan a year.

 

Bimsa’s research areas are wide-ranging. Around half the institute focuses on applied mathematics, a quarter on pure mathematics and the rest on interdisciplinary fields including artificial intelligence (AI) and data science.

 

A contrast to western academic pressures

 

Bimsa's model encourages freedom from politics and administrative burdens, allowing researchers to spend most of their time on their work, the news report said.

 

Much of this vision comes from Shing-Tung Yau, the institute’s founding dean and current president. A mathematician and former long-time professor at Harvard University, Yau has played a central role in shaping Bimsa’s identity and drawing international talent.

 

Bimsa’s visibility has grown quickly thanks to major international events held on its campus. Since July 2023, it has hosted the annual International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS), a two-week gathering that brings together Fields medallists, Turing Award winners and scholars from many disciplines.

 

Iranian theoretical physicist Mohammad Hossein Yavartanoo described the 2023 ICBS as “a very big event” and said he had not “seen anything like it anywhere in the world”. Now a professor at Bimsa, he added that Yau’s global reputation makes the institute “very attractive”.

 

According to Yavartanoo, collaboration is built into everyday life at Bimsa. “We have several meetings each week where people from different subjects describe the most important results in their fields. I’ve got many ideas this way,” he said, as quoted by the news report.

 

Scholars impressed by a fast-growing institution

 

Researchers who have worked in the United States, Europe and Canada say Bimsa offers a scale and combination of expertise that is hard to find elsewhere.

 

South Korean physicist Kimyeong Lee said, “In the US, there are many excellent universities, but opportunities can be limited at smaller institutions... At Bimsa, interaction is everywhere.”

 

For Ukrainian mathematician Yevgen Makedonskyi, the appeal is the ability to focus deeply on his discipline. Bimsa, he said, is “one of the few places in the world where I can do maths and almost not worry about anything else”.

 

Many Bimsa researchers also teach at Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, set up in 2021 to train future world-class mathematicians. Yavartanoo praised the students as “smart, motivated and on the right path”.

 

Russian mathematician Semen Artamonov also noted their pace of learning: “It’s as if they already know the material and came for advanced-level material.”