Building upon CSU’s successful Chinese partnerships, University representatives traveled to China earlier this month to cultivate relationships related to water issues and research. The Confucius Institute at Colorado State University (CICSU) is a specialized Confucius Institute with a focus on water and environmental sustainability, and each year hosts two symposia – one in the United States and one in China. Two delegations traveled to China, one that included CSU leadership, and another made up of CSU’s top water experts Drs. John Moore, Steven Fassnacht, Ed Hall and Lee MacDonald, and researchers Chris Olson and Glenn Patterson.
While CSU leadership attended meetings with Chinese partner universities, the second delegation traveled to Shanghai and Wuhan, collaborating on workshops and opening new joint research centers.
Strengthening ongoing relationships
In Shanghai, where CSU has historically strong educational ties with East China Normal University (ECNU), the opening of a new ECNU-CSU research center focused on urban water issues was announced. Representatives from both universities participated in a symposium on urban water issues, jointly sponsored by CICSU and ECNU. During the Sino-USA Symposium on Urban Water Issues, participants exchanged information about stormwater management, flood control, and water quality in Shanghai, one of the 10 largest cities in the world. The CSU team visited Suzhou Creek in downtown Shanghai, which has been the focus for extensive restoration work, before visiting a local high school.
Developing connections throughout China
After visiting Shanghai, the WES group then traveled west to develop new relationships in Hubei Province’s capital city of Wuhan. At Central China Normal University (CCNU), CSU signed an agreement to establish a joint research center focused on aquatic environmental protection. Representatives from both universities then participated in the Sino-USA Symposium on Aquatic Environmental Protection. Topics included eutrophic lakes, remediation of toxic contaminants, effects of land use on water quality, and sustainability of ecosystem services.
Following the symposium, several members of the delegation accompanied Dr. Shao Yang, co-director of the new CCNU-CSU joint research center, to Dali in Yunnan Province, where they visited field sites related to the algal blooms that regularly occur in Lake Erhai. As a result of the visit, the CSU delegation looks forward to additional research collaborations, student and faculty exchanges, and other joint activities with our Chinese colleagues.