The Institute of Engineering Thermophysics (IET) originated from the Power Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) founded by Academician WU Chung-hua in 1956. At present, it has developed into a research institute combining Dynamic & Electric Engineering and Energy Science & Technology in strategic advanced technology. Since its establishment, the institute has made many remarkable achievements including winning national second prizes, and more than 40 CAS or ministerial second/above second prizes. It has also won more than 50 national, CAS or ministerial third-level prizes.

The institute has 510 staff members including 483 research staff, including two CAS academicians, 54 research professors and 117 associate research professors. The institute has been authorized to confer doctorate and Master’s degrees to candidates in research areas of Dynamic Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics and to confer Master’s degrees in the field of Environmental Science and Engineering. Centers for post-doctoral studies have been founded, within which 19 post-doctors are registered. In addition, there are 1287 candidates working toward their doctorates and 141 pursuing their Master’s degrees. The institute has made remarkable achievements in talent cultivation. In respect of high-level talent introduction, we have employed 1 faculty from “Thousand Talent Program”, 4 faculty members from CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program.

In 2018, the institute’s research funds reached a new height, and the major and key projects progressed smoothly as well. The institute successfully applied for 103 scientific research projects. The institute submitted 306 national patents (194 invention patents), and 168 patents (100 invention patents) and 5 software copyrights were authorized. 213 papers were indexed by SCI and 322 by EI.

In 2018, more than 10 institutes jointly established the Unmand Aircraft System General Division, CAS, and five institutes jointly established the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the UCAS and made significant progress in applying for the Innovation Research Institute. The feasibility study report of "High-efficiency Low-emission Gas Turbine Test Facility" for Major National Science and Technology Infrastructure has been approved. In 2018, the institute continued to maintain a good cooperation with local governments and enterprises, with newly signed 43 four technology contracts and funding nearly CNY 113 million. The institute set up 9 project companies and the total registered capital was nearly CNY 37.5 billion.

In an effort to promote international cooperation, IET is exploring partnerships with internationally well-established research institutions, universities and companies. We have already setup collaborations, and have initiated projects with institutions that include Concepts NREC, Northwestern University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Central Institute of Aviation Motors, University of Birmingham, the University of Manchester, the University of Tokyo, and Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry. In addition, IET has strong collaborations with many international institutions, such as the Department of Energy, Duke University, the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, George Mason University, Imperial College London, the Liburdi Group, Princeton University, and the Cranfield University in the field of energy and power. With energy storage, we have built with University of Birmingham the International Energy Storage Alliance.

In 2018, the institute sent 131 persons to go abroad, destined for the United States, Britain, Japan and other 25 countries to cooperate in research and academic exchanges. There were 45 foreign scholars to visit the institute.

In 2018, the institute obtained a number of awards in scientific research. There lists some of the awards. Research Group of Advanced Light-duty Aeronautical Gas Turbine Technologies was awarded Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A Turbine Design Technology won the second class prize of Military Progress Prize in Science and Technology. "Research and application of the key technologies for the whole condition integration of natural gas distributed energy system" won two China Electric Power Science and Technology Award. "Research and application of key technologies of multi energy complementary distributed energy system" won the first class of Zhejiang Electric Power Science and Technology Award.

In recent six years, Journal of Thermal Science won the honor “Chinese Excellent Academic Periodicals of International Influence” by Chinese Assessment Center for Academic Journals and was supported by the scientific publishing fund of CAS.