Attending the opening ceremony of the Environmental Biotechnology Research Center of Sichuan University-Kumamoto University at Sichuan University (China)
On May 12th, a group of staff members including President Isao Taniguchi visited Sichuan University in China to attend the opening ceremony of the Environmental Biotechnology Research Center of Sichuan University-Kumamoto University. The center is an international collaborative research center between our university and Sichuan University. We signed a memorandum on its establishment in 2011, and construction of the institute was completed in 2012. Kumamoto University entered into an inter-faculty exchange agreement in 1997 and an inter-university exchange agreement in 2009. Since then, our institutions have actively developed academic and student exchanges.
During the ceremony, President Taniguchi and President Heping Xie introduced their respective universities and the partnership between them thus far. Professor Kenji Kida, Professor at the College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University and Professor Emeritus of Kumamoto University, explained the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the center and research content, before the ceremony came to an amicable conclusion. Thereafter, Prof. Kida and Prof. Yueqin Tang, a research collaborator, guided the group around the center’s laboratories, experiment buildings and other facilities.
That afternoon, President Taniguchi gave a memorial lecture to students in the College of Architecture and Environment, while Prof. Toshihiro Ihara and Associate Professor Makoto Takafuji of the Graduate School of Science and Technology gave lectures at the College of Polymer Science and Engineering.
Based on this visit, we agreed to further relations between our institutions via the development of collaborative research at the center.