In the fast developing fields of computer science and technology and information sciences, discrete mathematics plays a fundamental and supporting role, whose development and applications have become an important factor that affects the development of science and technology in a country. In July 2007, the Ministry of Education approved the establishment of the Key Laboratory of Discrete Mathematics with Applications, based on the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science at Fuzhou University (DIMACS-FU). Currently, the laboratory has 27 members (15 having PhD degrees), 15 being full professors and 5 associate professors, 7 of whom returned from overseas. Academician Ma Zhiming was appointed the chairman of the academic committee, and Professor Fan Genghua the director, of the key laboratory.
The laboratory has three research directions: graph theory and combinatorics, mathematical methods in very large scale integration (VLSI) design, and optimization theory and algorithms. In recent years, the laboratory has been undertaking the following research projects: one in the National Basic Research Program (973 Program); two in the key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); fourteen in the projects of NSFC, and received the following awards: State Natural Science Award, one in Second Class; Ministry of Education Science and Technology Award, one in First Class and one in Second Class.
The laboratory is a high-standard scientific research center, as well as a high-level academic education base. With supports from the provincial key projects of applied mathematics and computer application technology, the State Training Base of VLSI, the "211 project" at Fuzhou University, PhD programs on applied mathematics and MS programs on mathematics and computer science, the laboratory has become, with a reasonable scale, a high-level research-education institution on discrete mathematics. The laboratory will exploit its own advantage and focus on its main research directions, in order to raise the level of openness and to promote academic exchanges and collaboration. Our aim is to make the laboratory a leading research institution in China, reaching a high international level in certain research directions and making significant contributions to the local society and to the country.
