From February 16th to 18th, Professor Deng Xiuxin, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and former President of HZAU, visited Kyoto University (KU), accompanied by delegates from International Office and College of Horticulture & Forestry Sciences of HZAU. Both sides had in-depth discussions on talents cultivation, scientific research and cultural exchanges between the two universities. Prof. Yasuyuki Kono, Vice-President of Kyoto University, Prof. Eiji Nawata from Graduate School of Agricultural (GSA) and Prof. Ryutaro Tao from Pomology Department warmly received Prof. Deng and his delegation.
On the morning of 18th, the two sides held a symposium on promoting further cooperation and exchanges. Kono reviewed the cooperation and exchanges between KU and HZAU. He believed that, for both sides, there would be a promising prospect and large potential for cooperation in related disciplines. Substantial progress has been made in undergraduate and graduate students exchange programs, as well as scientific research and academic exchanges in horticulture. In addition, Vice-President Kono gave a brief introduction of the achievements Kyoto University has scored and its status quo, and proposed to strengthen the cooperation between UK and HZAU in the fields of horticulture, agronomy, biology, and food science.
In Deng’s remarks, he spoke highly of the achievements made by Kyoto University, and admired its contribution to the production of nine Nobel Laureates and the scientific breakthroughs in life science and other fields. He also expressed heartfelt gratitude to Kyoto University, for their great support for the 120th anniversary celebration of HZAU, the participation of high-level personnel from KU to HZAU in particular. According to Former President Deng, the two universities not only are close to each other geographically, but also share similar cultural background. Meanwhile, both countries are confronted with the same social problems, such as agricultural discipline shrinking, overpopulation, population aging and labor shortage. Deng expected that in the future, two sides will strengthen cooperation in the fields of food safety, horticulture, biological information, biomedicine and health, etc. Both sides reached a consensus on cooperation of the following aspects: furthering the academic exchanges in related disciplines, advancing the exchange programs for undergraduate and graduate students, providing better teaching and research environment for exchange students and necessary language preparatory education for undergraduate exchange students.
After the symposium, Deng gave an academic report titled "Problem- driven Citrus Research in China” to teachers and students of Kyoto University. He also visited the Biological & Horticultural Research Building and Experimental Farm, and the affiliated experimental farm in City with scholars from National Taiwan University (NTU). Deng and his delegation also met with HZAU alumni who work in Japan and overseas students in Kyoto University.
It is known that HZAU and Kyoto University have maintained close partnership through various events and courtesy visits in recent years, and the two universities has signed an agreement on academic exchange and cooperation as well as student exchange programs in May 2017. Up to now, HZAU has successfully held the horticulture academic symposium, jointly attended by scholars from KU, NTU and HZAU, and selected one doctoral student to study in Kyoto University for a year. In April 2019, two undergraduates from HZAU will go to Kyoto University for one-year exchange study.
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2019/0220/53609.shtml
Translated by Leng Yaqing
Supervised by Pan Buhan
