Highest award by the People’s Republic of China
conferred on the Rector of the Universität Hohenheim [29.09.04]
Conferral of the Friendship Award on 29 September in Beijing by the Government of the People’s Republic of China
China’s highest award for a foreign citizen has been bestowed for the third time on a researcher at the Universität Hohenheim. Academic and scientific collaboration with China’s foremost research university has a long history here. “With its commitment and farsightedness, the Universität Hohenheim laid the foundation stone some 25 years ago for today’s network of excellence,“ writes Minister President Erwin Teufel in his letter of congratulation on the nomination of the Rector of the Universität Hohenheim, Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Liebig.“For me this award is an incentive to intensify and expand our cooperation with China’s leading centre in the field of agricultural research,“ comments Rector Liebig on the invitation marking the occasion of the 55th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Prof. Liebig also wants to use this meeting to promote other projects. “Over and above high-ranking science and academia, it is also my personal wish to bring people from two cultures together.“
The President of the German Research Foundation (DFG), Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, also congratulated the Rector of the University. The first Sino-German collaborative project with a Research Training Group in the field of Agricultural Science has already been set up in Hohenheim. The German Research Foundation (DFG) attaches great importance to scientific and academic cooperation with the People’s Republic of China and is holding a further information event on Sino-German cooperation on 29 September in Stuttgart.
Minister President Teufel described the Universität Hohenheim as a pioneer in Sino-German relations in his letter of congratulation. The University can justifiably point to the fact that it was one of the first institutions in Germany to recognise the enormous potential of cooperating with China.
The world of business also paid tribute to the University: “As a University, Hohenheim has unique expertise in increasingly difficult political and cultural project management with China,“ writes Dr (Eng.) Thomas Weber, member of the Executive Board of DaimlerChrysler AG, with responsibility for research and technology and the Mercedes Car Group: “These are assets that will gain in value with the ever-increasing economic and political importance of the People’s Republic of China.“
The Government of China has in the past honoured two other Hohenheim academics with its highest award for a foreign expert – the former President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Erwin Reisch and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Horst Marschner. “Directly after the Cultural Revolution, Professors Reisch and Marschner belonged to the first generation of foreign researchers, who established and cultivated contact with colleagues in China“, explains Rector Liebig. In the middle of the Nineties, the second generation of Hohenheim academics and scientists broke into China with Professor Liebig acting as spokesperson on a joint research project on sustainable agriculture.
Today the University can call on a network of Chinese researchers, who also study at Hohenheim within the framework of the cooperation project. “Of the 26 doctoral students who studied at Hohenheim, six of them have gone on to become Professors in Beijing,“ stated Rector Liebig. “It is this network and these relations that have been built up over many years that make this collaboration possible at the level it is today.“
In July, the Universität Hohenheim and the China Agricultural University (CAU) promoted a common elite course for German and Chinese doctoral students with its Research Training Group. The programme is linked to research projects that will tackle the immense environmental problems in China’s agriculture. The programme is funded by around two million euros from the German Research Foundation (DFG). In future there will be joint courses and degrees for students in both countries.