Lehman leads Cornell delegation in China; Hong Kong and India next

BEIJING -- President Jeffrey S. Lehman arrived June 26 in Beijing, with a delegation from Cornell, to begin an 18-day, four-leg trip to bolster a century's worth of academic relations between Cornell and major institutions in China and India.

In his first official visit to China as president of Cornell, Lehman is developing a comprehensive framework for new collaborations between Cornell and the Chinese government, academic and research institutions and alumni.

Photos by Yanding Gao
Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman speaks with Chinese high school and college students, June 27, on the television show "Choice," which airs nationally in China. The show was taped in Beijing.
	President Lehman speaks with Huang Wei, the host of the Chinese television show "Choice," June 27.

Cornell's president is finalizing and celebrating new partnerships with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in medicine; with the China Agricultural University, in agriculture and the life sciences; and with Beijing University, in education.

And he also is exploring a partnership with Tsinghua University to focus on engineering, including nanotechnology. Cornell is proposing to collaborate with Tsinghua University on the establishment of an Institute for Advanced Studies and Research. Initially, this program would provide summer study-abroad opportunities at Tsinghua University for Cornell undergraduate students and faculty, who would help recruit talented Chinese graduate students to Cornell.

Before his official meetings began, Lehman was interviewed June 27 on China Central Television, a national network. On the show "Choice," a group of about 40 Chinese high school and college students peppered the president with questions ranging from the personal to the lofty. The students wanted to learn about Cornell admission standards and how the alumnus-president felt about returning to his alma mater. About 130 million people are expected to see the show.

Joining Lehman on the China portion of the trip were Norman Scott, Cornell professor of biological and environmental engineering; Zhong Sheng Sun, assistant professor of biochemistry in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College; and Oliver Fein, M.D., associate dean of Weill Cornell Medical College.

Scott serves as chairman of the University Consortium for Chinese Agriculture, a group of U.S. and Chinese universities and institutions that seeks to enhance agricultural science and technology in both countries.

Sun is a native of the Hunan province and is well-known for his research into the genetics of circadian rhythms. That research was cited by the journal Science as among the top 10 scientific breakthroughs in 1997. In 2001 Sun won the prestigious Mallinckrodt Foundation research award for his groundbreaking work in how biological clock genes affect the body's circadian rhythms and how such genes function in the blood, in the immune system and in metabolism.

Fein is an authority on primary care medicine and public health. His research has focused on access to health care for poor people. In particular, he has explored national health-system reform for the United States. His research in health policy has examined inequalities and the influence of social class on mortality and health status.

Cornell has enjoyed a long historical relationship with China. The university offered its first Chinese language course in 1879. Alfred Sao-ke Sze (Shi Zhaoji), a member of the Class of 1901 and the first Chinese student at Cornell, later served as China's ambassador to the United States and to the United Kingdom.

S.C. Thomas (Tommy) Sze, a member of the Cornell Class of 1905, was a major force in the building of the railroad system in China. In 2001 his son, Yao Yuan Sze, a retired Seattle aerospace engineer, endowed the directorship of Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in honor of his father.

Hu Shih, a member of Cornell's Class of 1914, is renowned for developing a vernacular style of writing the Chinese language. He was a leader in Chinese academic life and served as ambassador to the United States during World War II and later as China's representative to the United Nations. In 1994 the Hu Shih Professorship of Chinese History in the College of Arts and Sciences was established in his honor.

One of the earliest Chinese student organizations in the United States was the Ithaca Chinese Students' Alliance, founded in 1904 at Cornell. Later named the Cornell Chinese Students' Club, the organization joined a national network of Chinese clubs and worked to promote the welfare of China and contact among Chinese students in America.

Lehman and the Cornell delegation, which includes vice presidents Inge Reichenbach and Thomas W. Bruce, and Lehman's wife, Kathy Okun, are leaving Beijing today and traveling to Hong Kong. The group, which will then include Catheryn Obern, director of international affairs for Cornell Alumni Affairs and Development, is scheduled to fly from Hong Kong to Singapore, July 5, and then to India, July 6. There they will visit scientists and alumni in Bangalore and Mumbai, and will be joined by Porus Olpadwala, Cornell professor of planning and former dean of Architecture, Art and Planning.

About the trip to China