Chinese university-Cornell sign agreement

Cornell President Hunter Rawlings, right, and Zhu Qingshi, president of the University of Science and Technology of China, sign an agreement of cooperation between the two universities at a lunch at the Statler Hotel Jan. 24. Robert Barker/University Photography

By David Brand

The president of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Zhu Qingshi, came to Cornell last week to sign an agreement of cooperation between the two universities.

The five-year agreement, which also was signed by Cornell President Hunter Rawlings at a lunch hosted by Rawlings Jan. 24 at the Statler Hotel, calls for the exchange of academic faculty for research and advanced study and for the promotion of student exchange programs.

USTC, often referred to as "the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of China," is among that nation's top five universities and is the only one supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The university's interest in Cornell springs from contacts by Norman Scott, Cornell professor of agricultural and biological engineering and the university's former vice president of research and advanced studies. Since 1990 Scott has been involved in a number of international development efforts, most recently in China. Two years ago Scott, Rawlings and Ray Wu, Cornell professor of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, went to China to sign a number of agreements with universities and research centers. Cornell also has been working with Chinese academics to plan the mechanism for transferring Cornell research, particularly in the agricultural sciences, to Chinese farms and businesses.

Scott said USTC's particular interest in Cornell springs from the Chinese institution's desire "to enhance the position of teaching within the university." USTC, he noted, "feels good about its research capabilities but feels there must be a paradigm shift to get its faculty to pay more attention to teaching." Indeed, the agreement calls for both universities to exchange information concerning teaching and research.

Zhu was accompanied on his visit to Cornell by university colleagues Jin Dasheng, vice president and professor of physics; Cheng Yi, vice president and professor of mathematics; and Yang Ji, professor of precision machinery and director, international affairs. Gao Hongmei, currently at Brigham Young University, served as interpreter. The group visited Knight Laboratory, Wilson Laboratory and the Theory Center at Cornell. The group also is visiting a number of other U.S. universities, including MIT, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley