President Daniel Zajfman with the delegation at the Weizmann Institute of Science Photo Download Aaron Ciechanover with the delegation in his lab Photo Download Ada Yonath with the delegation Photo Download The delegation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Photo Download

A high-level delegation from the University of Macau (UM), led by UM Rector Wei Zhao, recently made the first formal visits to four leading institutions in Israel, as part of its efforts to implement a new globalisation strategy geared towards the goal of becoming a leading intellectual and economic engine for the region in the 21^stcentury.

The delegation visited the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the IDC Herzliya, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, in hopes of developing meaningful collaborations with outstanding universities in Israel.

Other members of the delegation included Prof Chuxia Deng, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences; Prof Ge Wei, associate dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences; Prof Hao Yufan, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences; Prof Philip Chen, dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology; and Prof Da-Hsuan Feng, director of the Global Affairs Office and special assistant to the rector.   

Speaking about this trip to Israel, Rector Wei Zhao said: “Israeli universities, whose remarkable success enjoys world renown, have been on our radar for nearly a decade. In the past four years, the primary effort of UM has been focused on moving to a USD 2 billion state-of-the-art new campus on a one-square-kilometre piece of land which is physically located in mainland China but is under the jurisdiction of the Macao SAR.  With the completion of our move this past summer, we are now proactively leveraging the new campus as a platform for our intellectual growth, and we are now ready to implement an ambitious global strategy. With this in mind, we want to establish close and meaningful collaborations with Israeli universities.”

During the four-day visit in Israel, the UM delegation met a cadre of outstanding researchers representing disparate disciplines from “US Asia polices” to “drug discovery”. Three of them are Nobel laureates in chemistry, namely Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who received the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry “for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation”; Daniel Shechtman of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry “for the discovery of quasicrystals”; and Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science, who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”.

Echoing the sentiment of Rector Zhao, Prof Da-Hsuan Feng said: “As a small nation with a small population, Israel has universities that shine on the world stage. Our visits to these four outstanding universities are very surgical: to establish collaboration with Israel’s world-class hard and soft infrastructures in health research, to seek assistance in enhancing our fledgling programmes in applied physics and materials engineering, and to foster meaningful and in-depth communication with leading Israeli experts on cross-cultural, economic and political developments.” Prof Feng noted that as a fledgling university, UM hopes to learn how Israeli universities can be so successful in becoming the economic engine of the nation.

Source: Global Affairs Office

Media Contact Information:

Communications Office, University of Macau

Albee Lei  Tel：(853) 88228004

Kristy Fok  Tel：(853) 88228006

Email：prs.media@um.edu.mo

UM Website：www.umac.mo

09/01/2015