Introduction

Liu Pengzhi — Professor, doctoral supervisor, special-grade mathematics teacher, senior coach of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad, member of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History, former State Councillor, member of the National Education Advisory Committee, founding president of the Innovative Talent Education Research Association, chairperson of the Expert Advisory Committee of the "Group-based" Support Program for Educational Talent in Key Counties for National Rural Revitalization Support, vice chairperson of the Renmin University of China Committee for Caring for the Next Generation, Honorary Principal of RDFZ and of the RDFZ Affiliated Schools Headquarters. Former Principal of RDFZ and of the RDFZ Affiliated Schools Headquarters. Recipient of special government allowances from the State Council.

Liu Pengzhi served as Vice Principal of RDFZ for 8 years and as Principal for 22 years, successfully building RDFZ into a renowned institution of learning that is nationally leading and internationally first-class. In the 2011 "Top 50 High Schools in China" ranking by the University of Maryland, USA, RDFZ ranked first. In 2013, the Center for China Studies in Washington, D.C., USA, evaluated China's 260 best high schools, and RDFZ ranked first. Over more than 50 years in education, Liu Pengzhi developed an educational practice system centered on "love and respect," and published works including Life Comes for a Great Cause (Volumes 1 & 2), Educators Who Support the Future (Volumes 1 & 2), 100 Sentences on Teaching and Educating, The Collection of Three Joys, and The Journey of Amplification, among others, winning the Second Prize of the National Outstanding Educational Research Achievements Award.

As an outstanding educator, she has been honored with numerous titles including Contemporary Chinese Educator, National Advanced Worker, National Advanced Worker in the Education System, National May Day Labor Medal, National March 8 Red Banner Pacesetter, National Outstanding Female Worker, China's Top Ten Educational Talents, and National Top Ten Outstanding Contributing School Principals. She was awarded the Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree Award and the Outstanding Chinese Educator Award on the Chinese Influence Rankings, among other honorary titles. She also received the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award for the "Network Education Key Technologies and Demonstration Project," awarded by the State Council of the People's Republic of China, as well as the Beijing Education Lifetime Achievement Award.

Liu Pengzhi enjoys a high reputation in the field of education both at home and abroad. Approved by the Ministry of Education, she established the Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science in the United States, which has been included in the joint outcomes list of the fifth through seventh rounds of high-level consultations on the China-US People-to-People Exchange Mechanism. This is a school for Sino-American basic education research and innovation, a school that fuses the best of world education and adheres to comprehensive innovation, and a school that researches and explores future education and offers policy advice to the nation. As the founder, initiator, chairperson of the Board of Directors, General Principal, and Principal of this school, Liu Pengzhi has devoted extraordinary efforts to it.

She has led more than ten national-level research projects; the results of her "people-oriented, diversified and open" comprehensive education model won the First Prize of the inaugural National Basic Education Teaching Reform Achievement Award by the Ministry of Education. She led RDFZ to promote the high-quality and balanced development of basic education, and founded the RDFZ Affiliated Schools Headquarters. She has successively undertaken 8 outstanding teacher training projects under the Ministry of Education's Teacher National Training Program, serving as project principal investigator; served as principal investigator for two sessions of the Ministry of Education's "National Training Program" Outstanding Principal Leadership Project; pioneered the "National Base for the Cultivation of Outstanding Basic Education Principals and Teachers," serving as base principal investigator, and organized two sessions of national outstanding principal and teacher training programs over six consecutive years; served as a member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Education and the Chinese Association for Science and Technology's Program for the Cultivation of Reserve Talent for Secondary School Students in Science and Technology Innovation (the "Talent Program"), a member of the National Expert Working Committee on Basic Education Curriculum and Teaching Materials, and an expert on the Ministry of Education's Expert Group for Research and Work Projects on the Development of Teachers' Moral Character; and led RDFZ to receive approval to establish the "Experimental Base for Exploring Models of Early Cultivation of Top-notch Innovative Talent." RDFZ, as the only regular secondary school, was designated by the State Council's Office for Poverty Alleviation as a National "Advanced Collective in Social Poverty Alleviation."

Zhu Xinkai — Born December 1974, Doctor of Management, CPC member, Ministry of Education "Yangtze River Scholar" Distinguished Professor, National Outstanding Contribution Young and Middle-aged Expert, recipient of special government allowances from the State Council. Currently serves as Standing Member of the CPC Committee and Executive Vice-President of Renmin University of China, chairperson of the Renmin University of China Committee for Caring for the Next Generation, and Principal of the RDFZ Affiliated Schools Headquarters.