joint Center on Global Change and Earth System Science of the University of Maryland and BNU was officially launched at the Samuel Riggs Alumni Center of Maryland University on Feb. 28th, 2012. The Launching Ceremony was hosted by Professor John Townshend, Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences of Maryland University. Professor Wallace D. Loh, President of the University announced the decision of setting up the joint Center on behalf of both sides. He also announced the appointment of leadership. Distinguished guests also gave welcome remarks to the center, including Professor Liu Yanhua (Former Vice Minister of MOST, Chairman of the Geographical Society of China), Professor Jonathan Wilkenfeld (Deputy President of Foreign Affairs, Maryland University), Fang Maotian (Minister Counselor of Education of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the U.S) and Li Zhaochen (Minister Counselor of Science and Technology). Professor Shi Peijun expressed appreciation to all sides on behalf of CPC Secretary Liu Chuansheng and President Zhong Binglin. He also exchanged gifts with Maryland University.
The preparation for the joint Center can be traced back to 2008. In the past 4 years, both sides made frequent visits to discuss the establishment of the Center. With the joint effort, the Center received wide support from MOST, MOE, SAFEA, China Embassy in US and Maryland State Government. The center is devoted to studying global environmental change and its impact on sustainability. By using remoe-sensing, geo-information system and other human-earth system model, the center will carry out dynamic monitoring of land use, analyze the trend and fluctuation of regional climate in the context of global environmental change, and the change of global crops productivity and eco-system service. This will contribute to better understanding of earth system, especially human-earth system at the surface of the earth, and achieve harmonized human-earth relation in the changing environment. The establishment of the center is highly relevant to technical cooperation between China and US and sustainable development of the world.
After the Launching Ceremony, both sides held a small-scale workshop to discuss the major academic achievements in related fields. They also talked about the key study area during the first phase of the joint center.
This Center is the very first joint research institute between Chinese university with well-known foreign university in the field of global change and earth science. It is of great importance to both sides in carrying our further study. The ceremony drew great attention from all sides. Major media including Washington Post, Fox News, CNN, and local media at Maryland and Washington DC also made full coverage of the Establishment Ceremony on Feb. 29th.