Collaborative ties with China were strengthened last month with the signing of agreements of cooperation between UC Davis and Peking University, generally regarded as China's finest comprehensive university. Affirming their collaborative intentions were, from left, UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef; Winston Ko, dean of the UC Davis Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences; Gao Song, dean of Peking University's College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering; and Peking University President Xu Zhihong. Ko, in Beijing a few days before Vanderhoef, laid the groundwork for the alliance by signing a working agreement with Gao to pursue collaborations in molecular and nanosciences.

Ko signed a similar agreement with Tsinghua University's Institute for Nuclear and New Energy Technology, headed by UC Davis alumnus Yu Suyuan, and followed up an earlier visit to Sichuan University by Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dean Neal Van Alfen and several UC Davis faculty members aiming to help protect the natural beauty and value of one of China's outstanding national parks.

China is moving ahead at an "almost astounding" rate to expand and strengthen its research universities, said Vanderhoef, and has pledged significant new funding to send students abroad for advanced studies through its "Project 985" initiative. And UC President Robert Dynes has launched a "10 + 10 Alliance" to encourage research and educational collaborations between UC's 10 campuses and 10 of China's premier public research universities. One of those universities — China Agricultural University — awarded Vanderhoef an honorary professorship, its highest honor, during his recent visit. Its president, Chen Zhangliang, in introducing Vanderhoef before his invited lecture on "The Mission of the Land-Grant Universities in America: Does It Include Internationalization, Research on GMOs, Stem Cells and Food Safety," praised UC Davis for its model evolution from University Farm to "one of the best comprehensive universities in the whole world."

— Maril Stratton