Strengthening Ties in China

Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie, and Prof. Dan Shechtman visited China to deepen and strengthen collaborations with Chinese universities and schools

In mid-January, Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie, and Prof. Dan Shechtman travelled to China, along with Dr. Moshe Marom, the site Director of the Technion- Guangdong Institute of Technology in China. On this visit Profs. Peretz and Shechtman met with senior leaders of Peking University (ranked among the top universities in mainland China) to discuss future cooperation in areas including innovation, environmental engineering, chemistry and others. They also visited the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China – one of the most prestigious high schools in Beijing. Prof. Shechtman lectured in front of 600 students here.

From left to right: Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie; Peking University President, Prof. Enge Wang; Dr. Ru-Qing Zheng, Deputy Director – International Office, Peking University;  Dr. Dongmin Chen, Dean School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Peking University

From left to right: Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie; Peking University President, Prof. Enge Wang; Dr. Ru-Qing Zheng, Deputy Director – International Office, Peking University; Dr. Dongmin Chen, Dean School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Peking University

The visit to China aimed to deepen and strengthen Technion’s ties in China. In the near future, the Technion intends to invest great efforts in initiating similar visits, as well as in building a presence on ‘weibo’ (China’s Twittter-like microblogging service), promoting the Technion through media exposure in the forms of interviews, articles and marketing materials, and in advancing collaborative initiatives with universities and other Chinese educational institutes.

The Technion-Guangdong Institute of Technology (Technion-Guangdong) – a scientific-research institute of technology founded on the ‘Technion model’ – will be established in the Guangdong Province in southern China. Technion-Guangdong will be launched according to the 2013 agreement signed between the Technion, Shantou University (STU) and the Li Ka Shing Foundation. At the signing ceremony, STU Provost, Prof. Gu Peihua stated that Shantou University chose Technion as its partner from 74 potential partners that were carefully selected – “because the Technion had shown the world what the future university should do in order to deliver values of regional, national and international significance. What Technion has done to advance the Israeli economy through student and staff research and innovation is an example for Chinese universities to follow.  If many universities in Guangdong and China do the same as Technion has been doing in Israel, an innovation-based economy will emerge.”

Strengthening relationships in China in general and the partnership with STU in particular, reflects the globalization strategy adopted by the Technion, a move which also led to the launching of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York City. At the Technion-Guangdong signing ceremony, Prof. Peretz Lavie said, “When you combine the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of Israel with the unbelievable scale of China, you have a great partnership. We believe in globalization and cross-cultural dialogue, and hope that by combining our research methodologies with the scale and resources of China, we will create a major research institute that will help not only China and Israel, but also mankind in general.”

In the Picture: From left to right: Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie; Peking University President, Prof. Enge Wang; Dr. Ru-Qing Zheng, Deputy Director – International Office, Peking University;  Dr. Dongmin Chen, Dean School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Peking University.