Professor Xi Youmin, President of Xi an Jiaotong Liverpool University visited Stanford University on invitation and was present at a workshop on ambiguity and its countermeasures held there, which assembled a host of professors from well-known universities such as Cambridge, Chicago and Stanford, etc. and was presided over by Professor James Gardner March.
Prof. March is a founder of organization theory and a core member of the Carnegie Mellon School. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Public Administration, the American Academy of Management and the National Academy of Education and is an honorary doctor at 18 universities in the world.
Throughout the workshop, Prof. March impressed the guests with his acumen for observation and strong innovative spirit.
Discussions on ambiguity lasted two days as experts debated and shared their thoughts and views which may divide sometime due to the ideological discrepancy between the East and the West, and at length, all boiled down to a three-pronged methodology truth, communication and cognition, which is expected to apply to improve people s ability in countering ambiguity.
Prof. Xi also elaborated on the plan for opening the program of sociology at XJTLU at a sideline meeting with Prof. March as well as scholars from Research Center of Sociology and Sustainable Development at Stanford University and invited them to provide advice and proposals.
It was agreed at the end of the workshop that China and America would take turns to hold high-level workshops of this kind on an annual basis so as to promote and widen international academic exchanges.