The Institute of Fluid Mechanics (IFM) at Tsinghua University was founded in 1958. It is a major education and research center in fluid mechanics in China. It provides undergraduate to post-graduate education in fluid dynamics, more than 80 students received their Master or Doctoral degrees in the last 5 years. The research activities in the IFM includes aero-acoustics, aerodynamics, bio-fluid and non-Newtonian flows, computational/experimental fluid dynamics, industrial and environmental fluid dynamics, and turbulence.

The Fluid Mechanics at Tsinghua has been listed as one of the State Key Disciplines by the Ministry of Education since 2001. The IFM currently hosts two international research centers, SMC-Tsinghua University Pneumatic Technology Center and GE-Tsinghua Center for Propulsion and Power Generation Technology, and the Center of Aerodynamics for Advanced Vehicles of the Ministry of Education of China.