Delegate from French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Visited Tianjin University

On December 8, 2006, Mr. Jean-Claude Thivolle, Head of CNRS Office in China visited Tianjin University in order to enhance mutual understanding and explore collaboration possibilities in the field of natural sciences. Vice President HU Xiaotang welcomed the guest in his office. Prof. YANG Fuling, Deputy Director of International Cooperation Office, was also present at the meeting.

Vice President HU indicated that Tianjin University has always been a model in international educational cooperation since its establishment as Peiyang Unversity, and has now developed into an important national base for scientific research, ranking high in China in the fields of Chemical Engineering, Precision Instrument, Architecture, Management and so on.

Besides, TU focuses on Engineering integrated with Sciences, Liberal Arts, Business, Law, etc. Mr. Jean-Claude Thivolle mentioned that CNRS, founded in 1939, is a government-funded research organization under the administrative authority of French Ministry of Research. CNRS established scientific cooperation and exchange with China from 1978, and now has cooperative agreements with Chinese Academy of Science, China Ministry of Geological and Mineral Resources, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Earthquake Administration, Ministry of Agriculture of China and so on.

Mr. Thivolle attached great importance to the cooperation between CNRS and TU by this visit and expressed his hope to develop cooperation with key engineering universities and research institutes in Tianjin in the fields of aviation, accumulator, genomics and so on. After the meeting, Mr. Jean-Claude Thivolle visited Feng Jicai Research Institute of Art and Literature, some labs in the School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, and the School of Chemical Engineering.

He discussed with TU faculty about the possible collaboration.