Zhang Linghao
Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President

Zhang Linghao, the President of Nanjing University of the Arts and also the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of NUA, is a professor and doctoral supervisor in industrial design. He is a visiting scholar at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He was selected as a member of the National Talent Program (Youth) of the Ministry of Education. Mr. Zhang is one of the excellent talents of the new century of the Ministry of Education and one of the high-level talents of the Six Talent Summits of Jiangsu Province. He is one of the 333 High-level Talents Training Project young and middle-aged science and technology leaders in Jiangsu Province. President Zhang has received the first China Industrial Design Top Ten Award—Top Ten Educators award. He also led The Key Laboratory of Industrial Design in China Light Industry and the Experience Design and System Innovation of the Excellent Innovation Team of Philosophy and Social Science of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu.

President Zhang is also the deputy director of the Industrial Design Teaching Guidance Sub-Committee of the Ministry of Education, the vice-chairman of the China Industrial Design Association, the deputy director of the Steering Committee for Graduate Education in Arts of Jiangsu Province, and a judge of the China Excellent Industrial Design Award.

Facing the major demand for future innovation and service ecosystem construction of home appliances and consumer electronic products in China in the past decade, President Zhang has carried out design education, research and practice in the fields of Chinese product design strategy and method, user experience design, etc. His theoretical and methodological system of systemic design and semiotic design has greatly promoted the intersection and expansion of design in the context of the new economy, information society and sustainable development.

He has presided over a number of important projects such as the National Social Science Fund's later-funded key projects, the National Arts Fund, the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of the Ministry of Education, and participated in the National Key R&D Program. He has published more than 60 papers in A&HCI, CSSCI, and other Core Journals of China. Many of his monographs were awarded the second prize of the 8th University Scientific Research Outstanding Achievement Award (Humanities and Social Sciences), and the third prize of the 12th and 14th Outstanding Achievement Award in Philosophy and Social Sciences of Jiangsu Province. With rich experience in design practice, management and research, he has mastered international cutting-edge design concepts and innovative methods and launched a series of important academic activities such as Design for Transformation international conferences.

President Zhang emphasizes teaching and educating people, and teaches a number of core courses in product semantic design, environmental facility design, system innovation and strategic design, and design strategy for both undergraduate and graduate students. Two of his courses were selected as national first-class courses for undergraduate students, and his teaching achievements earned him the second prize of the 2018 Higher Education National Teaching Achievement Award, the first prize of the Jiangsu Provincial Teaching Achievement Award, the first national excellent textbook (the second prize of higher education), the first prize of the 2nd China Light Industry Excellent Teaching Material Award, and the excellent teaching materials for colleges and universities in Jiangsu Province.