Vice president of University of Birmingham and Dean of Engineering and Physics Science School Prof. Richard Williams visited USTC on 12, January, 2012.
Prof. Williams first visited the school history hall of USTC with the accompany of vice president of USTC CHEN Chusheng and chair professor of University of Birmingham and “master” professor of USTC, Dr. YAO Xin etc. After the visit, Prof. HOU Jianguo, president of USTC, met Prof. Williams. President HOU introduced several fundamental research programs carries out in USTC to Williams and expressed his hope to strengthen the undergraduate student exchange program between the two universities.
A further cooperation conversation was followed, on which Vice president of USTC CHEN Chusheng and Prof. Williams talked about the specific cooperation between the two universities. CHEN introduced the basic state of USTC and the two parties reach a consensus on the undergraduate students exchange program. Dean of school of information of USTC Prof. LI Weiping and executive director of school of Computer Science and Technology Prof. CHEN Huaping also attended the meeting. After the conversation, Prof. Williams visited the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The performance of USTC teachers' chorus which Prof. Williams met by chance also impressed him deeply.
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 and has been acknowledged as one of the best ten research universities in the UK. It has a student population as large as 28,000. Since its establishment, Birmingham has cultivated two UK prime ministers and eight Nobel Prize winners. Close cooperation has been carried out between Birmingham and USTC in recent years. A joint laboratory of smart calculation and application was founded in USTC and a “3+3” joint cultivation program of double degrees was also reached in May, 2011 when vice president CHEN Chusheng visited Birmingham. Prof. Williams allocated 200.000 pounds to support the program.
