Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef and a small delegation of campus administrators will travel to Korea and Japan next month for 10 days of networking with university officials and alumni in those countries.
During his tenure as chancellor, Vanderhoef has traveled to Asia quite a bit; in 1998 he, his wife, Rosalie, and several university officials took a 10-day trip to explore business ties in Japan and Thailand. Vanderhoef has also traveled to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
But this Asian excursion will be slightly different, agree Vanderhoef and Bob Kerr, the director of international alumni and visitors programs who is coordinating trip logistics.
For one, neither Vanderhoef nor any of his predecessors have ever traveled to Korea - a country home to top universities where several UC Davis professors and deans have research ties.
Additionally, previous visits to Asia have focused on developing industry contacts that the university has on the continent. This trip, however, will ensure that UC Davis establishes and actively maintains relationships with many of the top universities in east Asia - institutions like the Seoul National University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.
"We want these collaborations to be more than a piece of paper," Kerr said. "You can do a lot with e-mails and faxes, but when you are trying to establish official relationships, it helps to have chancellors talking to chancellors, deans talking to deans."
Vanderhoef will be joined on the excursion - set for March 15-25 by Kerr; Celeste Rose, vice chancellor for university relations; Bill Lacy, vice provost for university outreach and international programs; and Zuhair Munir, dean of the College of Engineering. Munir has research ties to both Korea and Japan.
Kerr himself is especially interested in reaching out to UC Davis alumni and former visiting scholars who live in the countries.
On record, UC Davis has 206 alumni living in Japan, 68 in Korea. But the numbers are likely much greater than that, said Kerr. Last year there were 106 Japanese students and 133 Korean students attending UC Davis.
Despite strong interest on the part of the alumni - who in Korea gather in the spring for a Picnic Day-like family event - the university hasn't consistently kept track of its alumni living in Asia, he said.
And the university has kept no updated data on the numbers of scholars who have visited over the years. But the numbers are likely impressive, Kerr said. This year alone 100 scholars are visiting UC Davis from Japan, 78 from Korea.
During evening social functions Kerr will identify Japanese and Korean alumni leaders to provide connections and hospitality for UC Davis students and staff and faculty members on future visits to the countries.
The agenda for the trip is packed - laced with breakfast business meetings and even a weekend trip to Inje University in Korea, open on Saturday mornings. At Kyoto University, Vanderhoef will visit the research institute that was home to three Japanese scientists who, in 2000, drowned in the Sea of Cortez along with two UC Davis researchers.
Vanderhoef and his group will have some time for sightseeing around Tokyo and Seoul, but even a trip to the Kirin Brewery in Tokyo will be considered business. The brewery has connections to UC Davis' fermentation science program, Vanderhoef said.
"Everyone who goes has a distinct obligation," he said, "namely to bring home with them details of suggested academic relationships and get that information into the right hands as soon as possible."
When the group returns, its members will meet with deans and faculty members to discuss what they learned.
Year's itinerary includes England
The Asia trip will not be the only international trip the chancellor will take this year.
In October, he will travel to England to take part in a UC-wide celebration at London's California House, home to a partnership effort between UC and the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency to promote relations with the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.
The spotlight will shine on UC Davis when the house commemorates the 20th anniversary of the campus's Granada Artist Program. The effort brings noted British theater and dance directors to UC Davis each year to teach and collaborate on campus productions.
After the California House celebration, Vanderhoef and a university contingent will visit university and industry contacts in England and continental Europe.
Vanderhoef knows where he thinks UC Davis should travel next: South America. Ever since he attended several UC events in and around Mexico City, he has been increasingly aware of the ways strong ties with Latin American universities and alumni could benefit the campus.
"We have a lot of UC Davis people in South America - alumni and research connections," Vanderhoef said. "This is our own hemisphere; it's important that our connections be at least as good as they are in other parts of the world."