The Mars Orbiter payload Mars magnetometer, independently developed by the University of Science and Technology of China, successfullygot on board the “Tianwen-1”, China's first Mars probe. The main functions of the Mars magnetometer are to obtain high precision data of the magnetic field environment around the Mars, to measure the boundary layer with space, and to explore the remaining magnetization of local rock on the southern side of Mars and its magnetic induction layer. It is also designed to further investigate interplanetary plasma and interplanetary magnetic fields close to Mars. At the same time, in combination with other load instruments, it will carry out studies on particle escape from the Martian atmosphere. On May 15, “TianWen-1” successfully landed on Mars, marking an important step in China's journey of interstellar exploration. At 9:49 on May 25, the extension rod of The Mars magnetometer was deployed in orbit. At the same time, the telemetry parameters showed that it had been deployed in place, and the scientific data it returned proved that the product was operating normally. The Mars magnetometer then began the scientific exploration of vector magnetic fields in Martian space.

In May 2021, a team led by the academician Pan Jianwei successfully developed the 62-qubit programmable superconducting quantum computing prototype “Zuchongzhi-1”. Based on this, the team was able to realize two-dimensional programmable quantum walks. In October, they built the 66-qubit superconducting programmable quantum computing prototype “Zuchongzhi-2”, which was able to provide a rapid solution to the “random quantum circuit sampling” task. In the same month, Pan Jianwei’s team, in cooperation with the Shanghai Institute of Microsystems, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology Research Center, developed a theoretical and experimental method for the stimulated amplification of a quantum light source. At the same time, the team constructed the quantum computing prototype “Jiuzhang-2”, featuring 113 photons and 144 modes, thus realizing its programmable phase function. The team found a quick solution to the Gaussian Bose sampling task used to demonstrate the “advantages of quantum computing”. According to the previously published classical optimization algorithm, “Jiuzhang-2” outperformed today’s fastest supercomputers, operating at speed 1024 times faster than the latter when dealing with Gaussian Bose sampling. These achievements single out China as the only country to realize “quantum advantage” in both physical systems.

Our institution, the University of Science and Technology of China, took part in the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) experiment to find 12 ultra-high energy cosmic accelerators in the Milky Way galaxy. At the same time, they recorded gamma photons with energies up to 1.4 PeVatron (PeV= one thousand trillion). This is the highest energy photon ever observed by human beings, breaking the traditional perception of particle acceleration in the Milky Way, and ushering in an era of ultra-high energy gamma astronomy. The team led by Li Cheng from the State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, at the Department of Modern Physics of the School of Physics, was responsible for the development of the core component of the WCDA and KM2A array Muse detector in the LHAASO experiment - the large-size photosensitive probe, while the team led by An Qi was responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of a large-size electronic photosensitive probe readout system for a WCDA array. In addition, Prof. Yang Ruizhi from the Department of Astronomy participated in the data analysis, and presided over the collection of multi-band data and the theoretical interpretation of the observed data.