Qian Xuesen Library was officially opened on December 11, 2011. Hu Jintao, the then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made significant instructions at the opening ceremony. Li Changchun, Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee attended the occasion. Liu Yandong delivered a speech on behalf of the central government, indicating the goal of building Qian Xuesen Library into a collection center for Qian Xuesen’s documentations and realia of different stages; promotion center of Qian Xuesen’s scientific achievements and academic spirit; and research center of Qian Xuesen’s scientific ideas and theories. On the conference held in December, 2011 about learning central leaders’ instructions, the Party Group of Ministry of Education specified its support for Shanghai Jiaotong University to set up a Qian Xuesen Research Center and to apply for being a Humanistic and Social Science Research Base of the Ministry of Education. In 2012, the Party Committee of Shanghai Jiaotong University decided to set up Shanghai Jiaotong University Qian Xuesen Research Center, as part of the liberal art base construction of the university's phase-three 985 project.
Named after Qian Xuesen, the research center mainly focuses on the analysis of Qian Xuesen’s life experience, scientific achievements and spirit, and other outstanding Chinese scientists contributing to China's “two-bombs， one satellite” project. As an independent academic institution,it conducts cooperative researches with organizations from all over the country, aiming at becoming a key research base of the Ministry of Education in humanities and social science.