From July 26, 2021 to August 1, 2021, the 2nd Zhejiang University Advanced Functional Polymer Summer School jointly sponsored by Zhejiang University, University of Chicago and Stanford University was successfully held. This summer school was held in Yuanzheng international hotel of Zhejiang University (Haining campus). The beautiful environment of Haining campus and the academic atmosphere of gurus gathered together brought a new scene to the summer school, which was highly praised by the participating teachers and students.

This summer school was held in the form of a combination of online lectures and offline communications, with a total of more than 130 students from Zhejiang University participating. The summer school invited many famous scholars in polymer field to communicate with teachers and students of our department through online lectures. Also, graduate students of ZJU gave their own academic reports. In addition, the graduate students participating in the school broke up the research group to form a team, and put forward wonderful ideas for the exploration and development of the frontier of polymer science through the collision and integration of knowledge and thinking in different fields. Leisure activities such as barbecue, sightseeing Haining tide grand view, etc. brought comfortable academic atmosphere.

At 8:45 a.m. on July 26, Head of the Department of polymer, Professor Gao Changyou, , Secretary of the Party committee, associate professor Lou Rengong, deputy head of the Department, Professor Song Yihu, representatives of teachers and students attending the summer school attended the opening ceremony. Professor Matthew Tirell of the University of Chicago and Professor Sarah Heilshorn of Stanford University delivered online speeches.

Subsequently, three professors from the University of Chicago and Stanford University introduced the latest research progress of functional polymers to teachers and students with wonderful academic reports. The postgraduates of Zhejiang University followed and showed the academic exploration achievements of the new generation of polymer people in the form of on-site posters and exchange questions and answers. After the discussion, Nobel laureate Professor Jean Marie Lehn brought a theme report entitled ‘Adaptive Chemistry and Polymers’ to all teachers and students. From the perspective of life, Professor Lehn deeply and briefly described the great changes experienced by chemistry and polymer disciplines and the times, showed the unique charm of polymer, and ended the first day of summer school perfectly.

In the next few days, the contents of the summer school were fully launched, bringing a feast of functional polymer frontier science to teachers and students. Experts and scholars from universities such as the University of Chicago and Stanford University brought numerous academic reports, which involved many frontier fields such as polymer materials, polymer physics, photoelectric polymers, biomedical polymers and so on. During the learning process, the student representatives of our department also brought academic speeches and showed many new ideas of polymer research. The summer school also innovatively added a fantastic part: graduate students disrupted the research team and brought ideas on the application of polymer materials through the combination of knowledge in different sub fields. All the students in the 11 groups had ‘big brain holes’ and ended the summer school with lovely and novel ideas. All the participants believe that in the process of students' continuous learning and progress, these wonderful ideas will eventually be realized.

On the evening of August 31, the summer school was coming to an end, and the short and grand closing ceremony put a successful end to this activity. Next, some students will continue to visit Wuzhen for a one-day study. (Speech at the Closing Ceremony, maybe.) As a traditional academic project of the polymer Department of Zhejiang University, this polymer summer school inherits the characteristics of wide research fields, strong academic level and high participation of teachers and students. At the same time, it explores and expands new environments, new forms and new angles to bring new vitality to the polymer summer school. Based on the summer school activities, the polymer department will continue to hold an open exchange attitude, further promote the internationalization work, strengthen the communication with overseas universities, and constantly forge ahead towards the goal of building a world-class discipline.