On May 19, 2017, the first HUST-Heidelberg University Day was jointly held by Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Heidelberg University from Germany. This is one of the parallel events celebrating the 110th Anniversary of Tongji Medical College. Prof. Dr. Dieter W. Heermann, vice president of Heidelberg University, led a delegation composed of 11 professors and experts participated in the event. Prof. CHEN Jianguo, the vice-president of HUST and the Dean of Tongji Medical College, led many other senior leaders, professors and teachers from TMC and affiliated hospitals, as well as hundreds of students attended the various activities of the University Day. The two sides held high-level strategic dialogue, signed agreement, granted guest professor, held alumni forum, carried out academic lectures and many other exchange activities.
In the morning, the strategic dialogue and opening ceremony was held as scheduled in the Academic Lecture Hall of TMC. Vice-president of HUST and Dean of TMC, Prof. Chen Jianguo attended the opening ceremony. Professor An Rui, Vice-Dean of TMC, and Dr.Joachim Gerke, director of the International Office of Heidelberg University, co-hosted the opening ceremony.
At the opening ceremony, Prof. Chen Jianguo addressed a warm speech. He retrospected the profound friendship and all-round cooperation between the two schools since 1980, including annual high-level visits and 9-year-old TongjiMed Workshop. He delivered a strong message that TMC highly evaluated Heidelberg’s partnership and consider it as most important partner in Germany. He pointed out the cooperation with Heidelberg has greatly promoted the internationalization of TMC, and the history of the two schools set a good example of intercollegiate cooperation, as well as the symbol of Sino-German friendship. Prof. CHEN Jianguo hopes that the experts could take full advantage of this opportunity to interact, explore the ways to expand the staff-student mobility, to co-build research platforms and laboratories, and to jointly apply for international projects.
Professor Dr. Dieter W. Heermann, vice president of Heidelberg University, also delivered a speech echoing Prof. CHEN by reviewing the friendship and cooperation along the past 30 years. He showed gratitude for all the people who have made great contributions to the two-school cooperation exchanges.
At the opening ceremony, former Dean of Tongji Hospital, the chairman of the Chinese-German Society for Medicine, Prof. Chen Anmin introduced the current collaborations implemented within the “1 College 1 School” framework and expressed his willingness to further enhance the cooperation.
In the free dialogue session, the representatives of both sides all expressed their desire to further cooperate. Then, Prof. CHEN Jianguo and Prof. Dieter W. Heermann signed an intercollegiate agreement between HUST and Heidelberg University.
At the opening ceremony, Dean Prof. Chen Jianguo awarded the title of Guest Professor of HUST to Ralf Bartenschlager from Heidelberg University, and issued a letter of appointment. Prof. YANG Dongliang from Union Hospital introduced Prof. Bartenschlager's academic achievements.
Undoubtedly, the first HUST-Heidelberg University Day will become a milestone in the history of their international exchanges, and it’s believed that through joint efforts, the two schools will certainly create new brilliance in the future.
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