*********************************************************
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco (SFETO) and the alumni of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Northern California extended a warm welcome to a senior delegation from CUHK at a dinner gathering in the San Francisco Bay Area (May 17 local time).
The Vice-Chancellor of CUHK Prof Lawrence J Lau recently led a delegation of leading scientists to two world pre-eminent universities in the United States - the University of California at Berkeley and Yale University. The visit was part of CUHK's effort to promote the university on the international front and to forge co-operation in research programmes. The delegation represented four of the university's five areas of academic excellence, including Biomedical Sciences, Chinese Studies, Economics and Finance and Information Sciences.
Senior officers at the two universities, including Chancellor Prof Robert Birgeneau at the University of California at Berkeley and President Prof Richard Levin at Yale University were impressed by the outstanding research conducted by CUHK, including Circulating Nucleic Acids, Epithelial Cell Biology, Plant and Agricultural Biotechnology, Network Coding and Networked Control.
The University of California at Berkeley is a long time partner of CUHK. The two universities have been exchanging students since 1965. Besides student activities, there are active research and teaching programmes in the areas of physics, social work and public health. Most recently the University of California Berkeley and CUHK became members of the East-West Alliance - an alliance of medical research faculties which will develop high-impact and educational projects to meet the challenges of population and emerging infections that threaten world health. The University of Cambridge and Stanford University are among some of the others in the alliance.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Jack Cheng who was also part of the delegation took the opportunity to visit alumni in North America with other members of the delegation, and shared with them the latest developments in CUHK.
The delegation members include Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Jack Cheng, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Registrar Prof Billy So, Director of the Epithelial Cell Biology Research Centre Prof Chan Hsiao Chang, Director of the Institute of Plant Molecular Biology and Agricultural Biotechnology and Master-Designate of the S H Ho College Prof Samuel Sun, Dean of Graduate School Prof Wong Wing Shing, Chairman of the Department of History and Head of Chung Chi College Prof. Leung Yuen Sang, Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Head of United College Prof. Fung Kwok Pui and Senior Programme Manager of the Office of Academic Links Ms Shally Fan.
Ends/Friday, May 18, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:10
NNNN
