Chinese Vice-Minister Tan Tianxing Visits UCD
Thursday, 26 May, 2016
On Friday 19th February, a delegation led by Vice Minister Tan Tianxing of Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council paid a special visit to Professor Da-Wen Sun, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, and held a meeting with UCD Chinese academic staff and postgraduate students.
In receiving the Minister and his delegation, Professor Sun introduced UCD and School of Biosystems and Food Engineering to the Minister and took the delegation over the laboratories and to his office. In his office, Prof Sun showed numerous awards and prizes presented to him by international professional organisations and some of his works including published books, “Food and Bioprocess Technology” - the journal he founded and serves as Editor-in-Chief, and some Ph.D. theses completed under his supervision to the Minister. The Minister conveyed his congratulations to the remarkable achievements that Prof Sun made in UCD in the areas of agricultural, food and biosystems engineering.
Accompanied by Prof Sun and the Secretary of Overseas Chinese Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Dublin, the Minister and his delegation then held a meeting in UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering with some Chinese academic staff from UCD and Chinese research students from the School. At the meeting, the Minister first brought Chinese New Year blessing to all the Chinese working and studying in UCD, and introduced some latest government policies regarding overseas Chinese. In his speech, the Minister spoke highly about excellent development of the bilateral friendly relations between China and Ireland, and encouraged the Chinese students to study hard and make contribution to UCD research activities. The Minister reaffirmed that his office would be happy to provide necessary channel, platform and assistance for UCD staff and students to collaborate with Chinese universities and research institutes to promote academic exchange and mutual understanding between Ireland and China. Currently six Chinese students funded by the UCD-CSC scholarship scheme are studying for their PhD degrees in UCD under the supervision of Prof Sun.