Vice-Secretary WANG Shunhong and Vice-President FAN Pingzhi met ITA officials respectively

On the morning of Nov 18^th, 2008, Prof. WANG Shunhong, Vice-Secretary of SWJTU CPC Committee received Mr. Claude Berenguier, Secretary-General of International Tunneling and Underground Space Association (ITA) at the university s AcademicExchangeCenter. In the capacity of SWJTU, Prof. WANG extended warm welcome to Mr. Claude Berenguier and gratitude on his long-term support to the university. Noting tunnel engineering as one of our strengths, Prof. WANG expressed the university s on-going support to the development of the discipline and relevant internationalization strategy. He also hoped to see a broader range of cooperation in relevant disciplines between the two partners.

In the afternoon, Prof. FAN Pingzhi received Mr. Piergiorgio Grasso, Vice-Chairperson of ITA at the university s AcademicExchangeCenter. Prof. FAN, in the capacity of SWJTU, extended warm welcome to Mr. Piergiorgio Grasso and expressed support to the development of the joint Master training program between ITA and the School of Civil Engineering of SWJTU. Prof. FAN reiterated his eagerness to the initiation of the program and the university s effort to build it up to an ITA flagship training program.

Also participated in the meetings were Prof. QIU Yanjun, Director of the Office for International Cooperation & Exchange, Ms HE Ping, Vice-Director of the Office for International Cooperation & Exchange, Prof. GAO Bo, Associate-Dean of the School of Civil Engineering, Prof. ZHAO Shichun, Associate-Dean of the School of Civil Engineering and Prof. QIU Wenge.