Reporters learned today from Peking University that Comrade Tang Shiwei, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a renowned computer scientist and educator, professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Intelligent Machines, Peking University, left us in Beijing on October 21, 2025, at the age of 86, after failing to respond to medical treatment.

Professor Tang Shiwei was born in December 1939 in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics, Peking University, majoring in Computational Mathematics, in 1964. After graduation, he stayed on to teach at the university, and was promoted to professor in August 1990. He retired in December 2004.

Professor Tang Shiwei is one of the key founders of database discipline in China. He has long been committed to teaching and research in databases and information systems. He has served as the director of the Database Research Laboratory of the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Peking University, the director of the Computing Center of Peking University, the director of the Information Science Center of Peking University, the director of the State Key Laboratory of Visual and Auditory Information Processing, the vice chairman of the Database Professional Committee of the China Computer Federation, and a professional advisor to the Beijing Municipal People's Government. He has made important contributions to the development of my country's computer industry.

During his decades-long teaching career at Peking University, Professor Tang Shiwei spearheaded the establishment and development of the university's database discipline, laying a solid foundation for talent cultivation and scientific research in this field. He led the completion of numerous national "Eighth Five-Year Plan" and "Ninth Five-Year Plan" key science and technology projects, as well as National 973 Program projects. He successfully led the development of COBASE, a database management system with independent intellectual property rights in my country. The domestically developed system software platform COSA, with COBASE as an important component, won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the special prize of the Ministry of Electronics Industry Science and Technology Progress Award. It was also named one of the top ten achievements in the electronics industry in 1996, powerfully promoting the development of database technology and the informatization of the industry in my country.

As a highly respected academic leader in the field of databases at Peking University, Professor Tang Shiwei not only promoted the development of database technology in China with his profound academic achievements, but also cultivated numerous outstanding master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral students, many of whom have become leading figures and backbone forces in China's database industry and academia, exerting a profound and far-reaching influence on computer education in China.

Professor Tang Shiwei was an upright, diligent, pragmatic, humble, and peaceful person, deeply respected by his colleagues and loved by his students. His passing is a great loss to my country's computer science and education communities.