The Zheijang University – University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE) welcomed the 2018 freshman class of Chinese national students and their parents to the Haining International Campus last week. On 23 August 2018, Vice Dean Ye Chen hosted a meeting which provided advice and information to more than 100 parents of new students who will be starting their journeys with the institute this year. Dean Chen welcomed the parents on behalf of the institute, and thanked them for trusting ZJE and their children’s choice of University. She hoped that over the next four years, the parents and institute could work together to support their children’s futures. Vice Dean Professor Linrong Lu also attended and gave a speech introducing the Institute. His presentation included: the significance of running the international campus; the development history and current situation of ZJE; the training mode of two double-degree majors. Five parents of senior students were also in attendance, with one mother of a second year student sharing her experiences of working with ZJE over the past year.Although ZJE Dean, Professor Ouyang Hongwei was unable to attend the meeting, he prepared a letter for parents, which Dean Chen shared on his behalf. He said: “Success should not be taken for granted. ZJE gathers the outstanding elements of Chinese and Western higher education, and promises to spare no effort to provide students with the best quality resources. This process also requires the support and growth of the parents. It is not easy to be parents of college students, alongside the students, they also need to learn to adapt, and learn to be a calm and patient parent.”Dean Chen shared some experiences from the perspective of being a university student’s parent. She advised parents to try to remember that their children will grow more independent on their journey through university, and that they will have to let them have some freedom and trust that they will make the right decisions. She went on to say that parents will also need to work on themselves and continue to grow to be good examples for their children. She compared parents to being like the line of a kite – often seem invisible – but they are tough and hold the power to help pull an occasionally lost kite back to the main channel. To finish off the meeting, Dean Lu issued volunteer certificates to the first batch of ZJE parent volunteers, and thanked them for their future help and support for ZJE.The 2018 International student freshman will be welcomed in a ceremony on the 10th and 11th of September.

The Zheijang University – University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE) welcomed the 2018 freshman class of Chinese national students and their parents to the Haining International Campus last week. On 23 August 2018, Vice Dean Ye Chen hosted a meeting which provided advice and information to more than 100 parents of new students who will be starting their journeys with the institute this year. Dean Chen welcomed the parents on behalf of the institute, and thanked them for trusting ZJE and their children’s choice of University. She hoped that over the next four years, the parents and institute could work together to support their children’s futures. Vice Dean Professor Linrong Lu also attended and gave a speech introducing the Institute. His presentation included: the significance of running the international campus; the development history and current situation of ZJE; the training mode of two double-degree majors. Five parents of senior students were also in attendance, with one mother of a second year student sharing her experiences of working with ZJE over the past year.Although ZJE Dean, Professor Ouyang Hongwei was unable to attend the meeting, he prepared a letter for parents, which Dean Chen shared on his behalf. He said: “Success should not be taken for granted. ZJE gathers the outstanding elements of Chinese and Western higher education, and promises to spare no effort to provide students with the best quality resources. This process also requires the support and growth of the parents. It is not easy to be parents of college students, alongside the students, they also need to learn to adapt, and learn to be a calm and patient parent.”Dean Chen shared some experiences from the perspective of being a university student’s parent. She advised parents to try to remember that their children will grow more independent on their journey through university, and that they will have to let them have some freedom and trust that they will make the right decisions. She went on to say that parents will also need to work on themselves and continue to grow to be good examples for their children. She compared parents to being like the line of a kite – often seem invisible – but they are tough and hold the power to help pull an occasionally lost kite back to the main channel. To finish off the meeting, Dean Lu issued volunteer certificates to the first batch of ZJE parent volunteers, and thanked them for their future help and support for ZJE.The 2018 International student freshman will be welcomed in a ceremony on the 10th and 11th of September.

Closing Ceremony of “Discovering Asian Leaders in BMS” CompetitionZJU-UoE Institute (ZJE) played host to the 4th annual “Discovering Asian Leaders in Biomedical Sciences” competition last week, which officially concluded on Saturday.ZJE Vice Dean Chen Ye presided over the closing ceremony, with ZJE Dean, Professor Ouyang Hongwei, ZJE Vice Dean, Professor Linrong Lu, Scientific American President Mr Chen Zongzhou, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Professors Ma Jun, and Zhou Yiting, and Deputy Director of the Education Centre of China Science and Technology Museum, Ms Lu Ying all in attendance. Vice Dean Chen Ye asked the participants to review what they had experienced and learned in last five days of the competition and spoke highly of the excellent performance of everyone during this time.The competition lasted 207 days from start to finish, with the final participants competing for the last six months to win a place at the five day final event.Participants came from all over the country, spanning different backgrounds and ages, with some travelling back from as far as the United States to take part. All students showed their true passion for biomedicine.The competition comprised of 3 first prize winners, 5 second prize winners, 7 third prize winners and 15 honorable mentions.   First prize winners:Qingyang Wu, Yuwei Guo, Lin Zhan Second prize winners:Shujing Zhou, Zheng Wang, Jingxiao Gao, Yiran Ke, Baichuan Zou Third prize winners:Zixi Wang, Haiyue Yang, Feifei Long, Haoyu Fan, Xun Xu, Guohao Liu, Rukeye·KehaerHonorable mentions:Ruoxi Zhao, Haoyu Nie, Hanyue Zheng, Jianfu Cao, Yuchen Liu, Zheming Zhang, Lushan Wang, Jiahui Guo, Yujie Zhou, Yuxiang Gao, Xinying Zhong, Xingchen Zhu, Haoxi Xie, Wenkai LiangIn the short five days of the final, the contestants listened to cutting-edge lectures from experts within the biomedical science field, participated in scientific research experiments, observed and wrote their own experimental reports, and presented and communicated their projects and achievements in front of ZJE Professors and participants. There were lots of emotions over the week, with many participants saying that they had left with new long-life friendships, and a certainty for their futures.   Mr. Chen Zongzhou, President of Scientific America, who was one of the organisers of the competition, expressed his appreciation for the continuous growth of the contest, and also said he was excited by the future of the biomedical sciences field and all of the participants involved. Lu Ying, Deputy Director of the Education Exhibition Centre of China Science and Technology Museum also gave a speech. This was the first year the museum joined the competition as one of the key organisers. She expressed her surprise at the enthusiasm of the young people for scientific research, and praised ZJE as a top platform for biomedical science. Professor Ouyang Hongwei closed the ceremony saying: “I hope you will continue to grow up with: 1) the power of self-awakening gained through this competition, 2) the combination of knowledge and practice 3) the "ideal and responsibility" of rejuvenating the country with science and technology, and continue to grow and evolve into happy people who do something meaningful.”  Student representatives finished the competition by sharing their own experiences on stage. Each expressed their love for biomedical science, their enjoyment of the competition process, their gratitude to the organisers and teachers and their hopes and expectations for the future.   ZJE Institute hopes that the participants go on to become the ‘future leaders’ in their fields and wishes them every success for their development within biomedical sciences.AcknowledgementThanks to the members of the Competition CommitteeChairman: Ouyang HongweiVice Chairman: Zongzhou Chen, Linrong Lu, Qingqing WangCommittee Members:Ye Chen, Yuehai Ke, Suhong XuAndScientific American Team, China Science and Technology Museum TeamThanks to the Professor and Expert Steering GroupGracjan Michlewski, Sam Kunes, Zhijian Cai, Guoqiang Chen, Jianzhong Chen, Xiao Chen, Xin Chen, Xuequn Chen, Yihui Cui, Chenfang Dong, Zhi Hong, Hailan Hu, Junfeng Ji, Jie Jin, Lijun Kang, Fuyou Li, Xiaoqing Liu, Linrong Lu, Hongjin Lu, Jun Ma, Zhuoxian Meng, Jianwei Niu, Ting Gang Chew, Shuang Qiu, Wei Qiu, Jimin Shao, Bingui Sun, Jie Sun, Hao Wang, Di Wang, Qingqing Wang, Wei Wei, Han Xu, Suhong Xu, Fan Yang, Wei Yang, Xiaoming Zhang, Xue Zhang, Yan Zhang, Shufang Zhang, Jingwei Zhao, Yiting ZhouThanks to the ZJE Administration TeamZhiguo Ye, Xiaohan Huang, Shuang Liang, Di Liu, Jiangtao Lin, Xiaoliang Yu 

ZJE students showed off their presenting skills yesterday with a grand poster presentation. The annual poster day forms a section of the assessments for the ‘Global Challenges’ course, part of the BSc Integrative Biomedical Sciences programme. It provides students with a key opportunity to present their research to an audience of their peers, ZJE staff, and academic staff.  The Global Challenges course tested students to question the nature of the challenges that are faced by nations today, how they have arisen, how they may be mitigated and how scientific inquiry can contribute to that process. The primary focus was on the wide-ranging themes that are pertinent to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including energy, health, environment, and society. 67 students worked in 17 groups to present a poster investigating one theme. The event started with a short reception where staff and students were able to discuss their posters freely and receive feedback from senior staff.Each group was then asked to present their poster more privately to a team of markers. Prof. Josh Jones, Course Organiser said: "Global Challenges is a unique interdisciplinary first-year course that aims to offer students the opportunity to develop a selection of key academic skills that will be invaluable in later years of the course and beyond. One of these key skills is the preparation and presentation of academic posters, used by academics to clearly and succinctly explain their work to others. By offering our students the opportunity to design and present a poster we hope that their skills in research, teamwork, poster design and presentation will grow. I am pleased to say that this certainly seems to be the case, judging by the extremely high standard of work on display at our recent poster presentation evening."The poster presentation day marks the beginning of the exam cycle for students, who will be completing assessments over the next three weeks until the end of the term.The Institute holds open public lectures for the Global Challenges course each year.

Staff and students from the International Campus will attend a musical theatre performance at the Zijingang Campus of Zhejiang University this weekend. Students from Zhejiang University Ling Yun Musical Club will perform Canadian musical ‘Come from Away’.The story is set one week after the September 11 attacks and tells the true story of 7000 stranded passengers whose plane had to land unexpectedly in the small town of Newfoundland. The characters are based on mostly real residents of the town and how they adapted to the different cultures of their unanticipated visitors. Cultures clashes and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude grew into enduring friendships. The musical was nominated for seven awards during the 71st Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It opened on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 12, 2017, and became a critical and box office success.As part of their own unique take, the Ling Yun Musical Club will perform the dialogue in Chinese with English subtitles. The club, set up in 2011, has the aim of encouraging students to get involved in musical theatre from other countries. So far, the team has rehearsed and performed five musical plays including Mamma Mia!, Rent, Chicago, Hairspray and Legally Blonde. A bus will take students from the International Campus to the performance and will leave campus at 13.30 departure and will return at 9 pm.

Staff and students from the International Campus will attend a musical theatre performance at the Zijingang Campus of Zhejiang University this weekend. Students from Zhejiang University Ling Yun Musical Club will perform Canadian musical ‘Come from Away’.The story is set one week after the September 11 attacks and tells the true story of 7000 stranded passengers whose plane had to land unexpectedly in the small town of Newfoundland. The characters are based on mostly real residents of the town and how they adapted to the different cultures of their unanticipated visitors. Cultures clashes and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude grew into enduring friendships. The musical was nominated for seven awards during the 71st Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It opened on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 12, 2017, and became a critical and box office success.As part of their own unique take, the Ling Yun Musical Club will perform the dialogue in Chinese with English subtitles. The club, set up in 2011, has the aim of encouraging students to get involved in musical theatre from other countries. So far, the team has rehearsed and performed five musical plays including Mamma Mia!, Rent, Chicago, Hairspray and Legally Blonde. A bus will take students from the International Campus to the performance and will leave campus at 13.30 departure and will return at 9 pm.

ZJE students showed off their presenting skills yesterday with a grand poster presentation. The annual poster day forms a section of the assessments for the ‘Global Challenges’ course, part of the BSc Integrative Biomedical Sciences programme. It provides students with a key opportunity to present their research to an audience of their peers, ZJE staff, and academic staff.  The Global Challenges course tested students to question the nature of the challenges that are faced by nations today, how they have arisen, how they may be mitigated and how scientific inquiry can contribute to that process. The primary focus was on the wide-ranging themes that are pertinent to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including energy, health, environment, and society. 67 students worked in 17 groups to present a poster investigating one theme. The event started with a short reception where staff and students were able to discuss their posters freely and receive feedback from senior staff.Each group was then asked to present their poster more privately to a team of markers. Prof. Josh Jones, Course Organiser said: "Global Challenges is a unique interdisciplinary first-year course that aims to offer students the opportunity to develop a selection of key academic skills that will be invaluable in later years of the course and beyond. One of these key skills is the preparation and presentation of academic posters, used by academics to clearly and succinctly explain their work to others. By offering our students the opportunity to design and present a poster we hope that their skills in research, teamwork, poster design and presentation will grow. I am pleased to say that this certainly seems to be the case, judging by the extremely high standard of work on display at our recent poster presentation evening."The poster presentation day marks the beginning of the exam cycle for students, who will be completing assessments over the next three weeks until the end of the term.The Institute holds open public lectures for the Global Challenges course each year.

Students and volunteers came together on Saturday 21 April to host the first ever Culture Festival at the International Campus. The Festival saw students from various countries and regions host stalls which represented their nationalities with fun games, food and artefacts. There were also plenty of main stage performances to keep the audience entertained which ranged from traditional Kung Fu to country/pop music.  Francesca Celi, Organiser of the Culture Festival and member of the International Student Council said: "The idea of the Cultural Festival was to let students share their countries' traditions, art, activities and games. The outcome was extremely positive. Chinese and International students cooperated in creating a real international environment, with performances of traditional songs and dances from all over the world, several stands divided by international countries and Chinese regions, and a range of food delicacies offered by the canteen. During the festival, students shared traditional games and activities, and visitors had the chance to collect 'Visas' from every stand to complete their official Culture Festival passports."  The Festival was jointly arranged by the International Student Council, Student Union, Residential College Student Committee, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Youth League Committee, and provided a real insight to the international nature of the campus. Students from over 46 different countries and regions were represented at the Festival and over 100 people attended. K.C. Ting, Vice Dean of International Campus, Jenny Wang, member of Party Working Committee and Director of Office of Student Affairs of International Campus, Haidong Qu, Vice Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Chen Ye, Vice Dean of ZJE, and Ma Hao, Vice Dean of ZJUI, also participated.  Francesca said: "The effort from all the students was incredible, they volunteered in preparing the stands and entertaining the guests during the duration of the festival. It was a wonderful occasion of cooperation among students' associations, a chance for everyone to understand each other's origins, and to engage altogether in creating an international spirit for our Campus."A gallery with all images from the Culture Festival is available on our Facebook page.  

Executive Dean, Professor Sue Welburn has published a joint-research paper today as part of the Springer Nature Sharedit Initiative. The paper, entitled “Addressing vulnerability, building resilience: community-based adaption to vector-borne diseases in the context of global changes” was published in Infectious Diseases of Poverty by Springer Nature. Executive Dean, Professor Sue WelburnThe Springer Nature initiative aims to provide researchers with the platform to share content easily and legally. The provision of links to view-only, full-text subscription research articles, means researchers can easily share their content online including over social media.  The paper, jointly researched with Bardosh, L.K., Ryan, S., Ebi, K., Welburn, S. and Singer, B., identifies and discusses best practices and conceptual principles that should help to guide future community-based efforts to mitigate human vulnerability to vector-borne diseases. The analysis was focused on seven major climate-sensitive vectors- borne diseases: malaria, schistosomiasis, dengue, leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, chagas disease, and rift valley fever.The researchers found that more focused attention and investments are needed in meaningful public participation, appropriate technologies, the strengthening of health systems, sustainable development, wider institutional changes and attention to the social determinants of health, including the drivers of co-infection.You can find the full paper here: http://rdcu.be/A1PZ

The University of Edinburgh has awarded an honorary degree to the highest-ranking woman in the government of the People’s Republic of China, Madam Liu Yandong.The award is in recognition of her role in promoting a wider understanding of Chinese culture, the Chinese language and for encouraging cultural exchanges with China. Madam Liu received the degree of Doctor of Letters from the University's Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea at a ceremony in St Ceclia’s Hall, Edinburgh.The ceremony featured musical performances from local singer-songwriter and harpist, Katie Targett-Adams, and music students at the University of Edinburgh.Madam Liu Yandong has played a major role in the development of the Confucius Institute Network worldwide, and has helped promote and develop links between Scotland and China through her work with the Confucius Institute of Scotland.Principal and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Edinburgh, Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, said: “Madam Liu Yandong has played a significant role in helping foster relations between China and the rest of the world. Her support for the Confucius Institute for Scotland has enabled many students to gain Chinese language skills and helped China-Scotland relations in business and culture. It is a great privilege to present her with one of our highest honours, a doctorate of the University.”Executive Dean, Prof. Sue Welburn, Madam Liu Yandong and Professor David Arnot For more information:https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2017/honorary-degree-for-china-s-vice-premier

ZJE Dean Prof. Ouyang visited two of the top high schools in Hangzhou today: Hangzhou Xuejun High School and Hangzhou High School, to give a talk on Biomedical Sciences. And, after the talk, he had a short meeting with vice presidents of the two high schools.     Pro. Ouyang said: “For future talent, there is no competition, only a revolution of new era-people who must innovate and renew themselves. Do not compare with others, but focus on ourselves, in order to achieve more.”He stated that the students should build up their strengths during undergraduate study, carrying this through with them throughout the rest of their careers.Prof. Ouyang then showed science fiction movie clips, explaining that some were created with the correct scientific supporting evidence at the time, but since have been aligned with scientific discoveries. Biomedical science develops rapidly, which means humans know more now than ever before, and will continue to achieve breakthroughs.ZJE will be touring local high schools to help inspire the future generation of biomedical scientists, as well as to promote the institute.

The official launch of “Future Talent Cultivation Plan in BMS” took place at the International Campus on 7 November 2017. The scheme is jointly run by China Science and Technology Museum(CSTM), ZJU-UoE Institute and Scientific American. Director of CSTM-Mr. Hao Yin, the Vice Director-Ms. Hong Liao, the Dean of ZJU-UoE Institute-Prof. Hongwei Ouyang, the Vice Dean-Ms. Ye Chen, the Vice Dean of School of Basic Medicine, Zhejiang University-Prof. Wei Yang, the Director of Scientific American-Mr. Zongzhou Chen, the Vice Director-Ms. Fang Liu and 10 representatives from the regional science and technology museum and 21 high schools were all in attendance. The ceremony was hosted by Ms. Hong Liao, the Vice Director of CSTM.After the ceremony, Prof. Hongwei Ouyang, the Dean of ZJU-UoE Institute spoke about Biomedical Future Talent Cultivation. He welcomed everyone to the International Campus, describing it as the strategic education base of Zhejiang University, which aims to foster future, global leaders. He also spoke of the success of biomedical sciences, which has allowed some of the biggest breakthroughs and milestones in human history including the development of new treatments of disease. He finished by saying that he predicts the biomedical sciences field will be the one of most significant industries for social development in future years. One of the most important parts of the Cultivation Plan, is The Discovering Future Leaders in BMS Competition, which has been running for the past three years, and has attracted hundreds of student applications. This year, the competition winners will visit the International Campus as part of their prize. For updates on the application dates, follow the website: http://bms.zju.edu.cn/bms-leader/. 

Delegations from University of Dundee, University of Melbourne and WEHI Institude of Medical Research visited the International Campus this week. The delegations met with Dean Prof. Hongwei Ouyang, the Executive Dean Prof. Sue Welburn and the Vice Dean Prof. Linrong Lu, to tour the campus, swap best practice ideas, and speak to students about their short-term exchange programmes. About University of DundeeThe University of Dundee was set up in 1881 and is located in Dundee, Scotland. Initially, the University of Dundee was part of the University of St Andrews, however, after great expansion, it became a self-governed university, maintaining its historical culture heritage and structure. Since then, the University of Dundee has become an internationally recognised research centre. According to QS University Ranking 2017/2018, the Biomedical technology programmes of UoD is part of the top 10 in UK. About the University of MelbourneEstablished in 1853, the University of Melbourne is a public-spirited institution that makes distinctive contributions to society in research, learning and teaching and engagement. It’s consistently ranked among the leading universities in the world, with international rankings of world universities placing it as number 1 in Australia and number 32 in the world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2017-2018).. About WEHI Institude of Medical ResearchEstablished in 1915, Walter+Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research is the most historical research centre in Australia. As of 2015, the institute hosted more than 750 researchers who work to understand, prevent and treat diseases including blood, breast and ovarian cancers; inflammatory diseases (autoimmunity) such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease; and infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and hepatitis B and C.

On 21 September 2017, Professor Lieven Thorrez and students of the University of Leuven, were invited by Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology (ZAST) to visit the International Campus. On arrival, ZJE-UoE Institute (ZJE) staff provided a campus tour for Professor Lieven Thorrez, Mr Bing Zhu, ZAST staff and eight undergraduate biomedical students.To further understand the institute’s academic approach, the visitors took an “Introduction to Pharmacology” class alongside ZJE Institute sophomore students, led by Dr Michael Daw. Eline Verscheure, a student at the University of Leuven, said that she was pleased to take part in the lesson as she has a class on the same topic next week - so now felt more prepared for being back at university.After class, both students from University of Leuven and ZJE Institute had time to socialize, sharing their study experiences, information about campus life and their cultural differences.After their day at the International Campus, Professor Lieven Thorrez and students said they were impressed by the mix of Western and Eastern cultures, and the state-of-the-art campus facilities. They found it very exciting for students to be able to study alongside different nationalities, share their cultural experiences and learn from the integrated professional knowledge of the multicultural lecturers.