A delegation from Peking University visits Université Paris-Saclay
On 18 January 2023, the President of Université Paris-Saclay, Prof Estelle Iacona, the Vice-President for International and European Affairs, Prof Sandrine Lacombe, and the Deputy Vice-President for Research in Science and Engineering, Dr Michel Guidal, welcomed a delegation from Peking University (PKU).
The delegation was led by the university’s President, Prof Gong Qihuang, who was accompanied by Prof Chen Dayue, Dean of the School of Mathematics, and Prof Yan Xueqing, Vice-Dean of the School of Physics, alongside seven other colleagues. Peking University is a leading higher education institution; ranked as the 2nd Chinese university in the 2022 edition of the Shanghai Rankings, a member of the C9 League, and the 3rd Chinese institution for its number of joint publications with Université Paris-Saclay.
After a presentation of both institutions, the two universities discussed joint cooperation initiatives, such as the Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science (SOFIE), which has supervised over 80 PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers, carried out 13 international projects and almost 300 joint publications (Université Paris-Saclay coordinator: Philippe Ciais, Deputy director of the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences - LSCE).
The heads of the Graduate Schools for Mathematics and Physics at Université Paris-Saclay, Prof Pierre Pansu and Prof Odile Stephan, discussed opportunities for cooperation in education and research with their Chinese counterparts. The successful Sino-French Research Program in Mathematics (SFRPM), coordinated by the Fondation Jacques-Hadamard, was particularly praised.
The two universities expressed their desire to identify new areas for cooperation and facilitate mobility, in particular for post-docs, to boost bilateral cooperation at a time when international travel has been restricted by Covid-19. Several disciplines and areas for collaboration were considered, including high energy physics, climate and environmental sciences and humanities.
Following the visit, Université Paris-Saclay and Peking University have agreed to pursue their collaborations in shared areas of interest in order to increase and diversify cooperation initiatives.
