ZJU-Uchicago Academic Week: A Success!

As an important event for the celebration of our 120^th anniversary, Zhejiang University – University of Chicago Academic week was held jointly by Department of Polymer Science and Engineering (DPSE) of ZJU,the Institute for Molecular Engineering (IME) of UChicago and the International Relations Office of ZJU: 9 professors from ZJU, 8 professors from UChicago and more than 100 students attended this event, which lasted from April 13^th to 15^th on the Yuquan Campus. 

The opening ceremony was chaired by Dr. Xu Zhikang, Dean of DPSE. ZJU Vice President Dr. Zheng Qiang attended the ceremony and delivered opening remarks in which Dr. Zheng extended a warm welcome to the guests and showed his great appreciation for the significance and influence of this conference, which will strengthen communication, develop friendships, and lay a foundation of further cooperation for both universities.

In the following colloquium, there was a thrilling discussion between experts from two institutions on topics of stimuli-responsive materials, material surface engineering, opto-electronic functional polymers, biomacromolecules, water treatment, material structures, kinetic study and more!

Chaired by Ms. Li Min, Director of ZJU International Relations Office, ZJU Global Lecture Series: Education, Science & Technology was held on the afternoon of the 14^th, where Dr. Matthew Tirrell, Dr. Supratik Guha, Dr. Jeffrey Hubbell and Dr. James Skinner shared with ZJU faculty and students insights and passions in their professional and personal lives. Meanwhile, 40 posters from students in ZJU and UChicago presented their latest research achievements.

Who could better describe this success than a student? Please find below a DPSE student 's experience:

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TianWen Bai was introducing his poster to a student from UChicago

"The ZJU-Uchicago Academic Week is amazing, it's just what we need as Polymer Science and Engineering students. At other conferences, it is challenging to speak with world-renowned scientists, but the experts attending from Uchicago and ZJU were there specifically to meet us. It was also great for me to have the opportunity to talk with Professor Ka Yee Lee from Department of Chemistry in UChicago. She carefully read my poster and gave me very helpful advice on future studies. 

I really appreciate how it was an "Academic Week", and not specifically a colloquium on scientific researches. Professors from Uchicago talked about how they dealt with bottlenecks in their career, which is extremely valuable to a fresh PhD candidate. We are often frustrated by many things."

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Mr. Tianwen Bai is a first-year PhD candidate in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, with an emphasis in computational chemistry. He is especially passionate about following an academic career path, and participating in trailwalk.