Chen Shengshen Institute of Mathematics (Nankai Institute of Mathematics) was founded in 1985. It was put forward by Professor Chen Shengshen, an international master of mathematics, who personally served as the first director until 1992. The current director is Professor Long Yiming, an academician of China Academy of Sciences and an academician of the Academy of Sciences of developing countries. Professor Yang Zhenning, the Nobel Prize winner, established a theoretical physics laboratory in this institute on 1986. Academician Ge is the director of the laboratory. Chen Shengshen Institute of Mathematics is an open research institute. Its purpose is to recruit Chinese and foreign mathematicians, promote the development of pure mathematics and applied mathematics in China, and cultivate high-level mathematics talents based in China. The policy of its office is "based on Nankai, facing the whole country and looking at the world". Since its establishment, Chen Shengshen Institute of Mathematics has trained a large number of young and middle-aged mathematicians who are well-known at home and abroad by undertaking large-scale academic activities. Through various forms of academic exchange activities, the development of pure mathematics and applied mathematics in China has been greatly promoted, and China's position in the international mathematics field has been greatly enhanced.

Nankai Institute of Mathematics is the third mathematical research institution founded by Bobby Chen after the former Institute of Mathematics of China Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Mathematical Sciences (MSRI). Chen Shengshen believes that the most important thing for China mathematics to gain its due position in the world and become a powerful country in mathematics is to establish a base for independently cultivating senior mathematics talents. His foresight was highly appreciated by the party and the government. 1985, as the first director directly employed by the State Education Commission at that time, Chen Shengshen founded Nankai Institute of Mathematics with a foreigner. He regarded this institute as his "youngest son" and said at the inaugural meeting, "I will do my best until I die." In the past 20 years, Nankai Institute of Mathematics has influenced and brought up a large number of high-level young and middle-aged mathematicians who are active at home and abroad in accordance with the purpose of 12 established by Chen Shengshen, which is based in Nankai, facing the whole country and looking at the world. It is also a new base for training advanced mathematics talents in China.

Chen Shengshen Mathematics Institute is the earliest international mathematics center in China. Together with Beijing International Mathematics Research Center of Peking University (established in 2005) and Shanghai Mathematics Center of Fudan University (established on 20 12), it echoes the north and south, optimizing the strategic layout of China's mathematical science development.