Shandong University started to participate in the AMS collaboration in March 2004. Professor CHENG Lin was the chief scientist of the thermal system of the AMS project, generally responsible for its research, design, manufacture and experiment. Under the leadership of Professor Cheng Lin, over 30 scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), other AMS collaborating institutes and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed a newly designed ad hoc thermal control system, which has good ability of heat transfer and heat storage. With this system, the heat from power distribution and the operation of electronics and various detectors can be dissipated in real time; the system can absorb heat when the Space Station faces the sun, and thus become a heat source to raise the temperature of AMS components during nighttime on orbit. By ensuring efficient heat dissipation and the homogeneity and stability of the temperature distribution, this design solves the major problems for the operation of AMS in the environment of the International Space Station. AMS has successfully gone through various extreme conditions in the past eight-year operation in the Space Station and made a marvelous contribution to the thermal control methods regarding operation of large scientific apparatus in the space. The thermal system of AMS, designed and developed by Shandong University, is a unique large component made by China for the International Space Station. After AMS was installed on the International Space Station, the research team of thermal science at Shandong University continued to control and monitor the operation of the thermal system and to record and examine the data. All the data are original, unique and irreplaceable. According to the practical situation of operation in space, the team revised the model of thermal control and developed several new models in order to overcome various extreme conditions. The temperatures of the AMS and all the detectors have been maintained within the defined limits.

The Institute of Thermal Science and Technology, led by Professor Sun Qie, is an independent research organization at Shandong University. The Institute is devoted to thermal science and technology and it has established three labs: a lab for Heat Transfer, a lab for Thermodynamic System and a lab for Industrial Ecology. At present, the Institute has a research team of over 120 staff and postgraduate students.