Huddersfield and Huazhong cement relationship
Thu, 05 Dec 2013 09:04:00 GMT
Uni signs Memorandum of Understanding with Huazhong University of Science and Technology to expand collaborations
Huazhong's President Professor Li Peigen (centre left) and Huddersfield's Pro Vice-Chancellor International Professor Dave Taylor with delegates from both the Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the University of Huddersfield.
A RESEARCH partnership has been forged between the University of Huddersfield – now the UK’s University of the Year – and one of the most dynamic institutions in China.
Pictured (left) Huddersfield's Professor Xiangqian Jane Jiang with Huazhong's Professor Li Peigen.
In the same week that Prime Minister David Cameron was in China, urging closer trade links, a distinguished Chinese delegation came to Huddersfield from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), which is based in the large city of Wuhan, capital of the Hubei Province.
The purpose of the visit was to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities. It will lead to further joint research projects and exchange visits by academic staff plus a wide range of other collaborations.
Pictured (right and below) Huazhong University delegates tour the University of Huddersfield’s EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology.
The Memorandum was signed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Professor Bob Cryan, and Professor Li Peigen, who is the President of HUST.
But there was already a close link between the two universities in the shape of one of the Huddersfield’s most eminent professors, Chinese-born Xiangqian Jane Jiang.
One of the world’s leading metrologists and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, she obtained her PhD at HUST with an award-winning thesis before relocating to the UK for a research and academic career that ultimately brought her to Huddersfield, where she heads its EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology.
She has kept up close links with HUST, where she is a Changjiang Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at its School of Mechanical Science and Engineering and pays frequent research visits.
Hosted by Professor Jiang and Huddersfield’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for international development, Professor Dave Taylor, the visitors from HUST spent a day inspecting the facilities at the University of Huddersfield’s EPSRC Centre before a plaque was unveiled commemorating the Memorandum of Understanding.
The Chinese visitors also toured other parts of the University, paying special attention to its labs and research centres. They were also taken to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park at nearby West Bretton.
At a celebration dinner, gifts were exchanged and Professor Cryan welcomed the HUST party. “I am sure that our collaboration will be a long-lasting and fruitful one,” he said.
