President Liu Liang conferred Honorary Doctorate to Professor Jean-Marie Pierre Lehn
Chair Prof. Liu Liang, Prof. Sun Jianrong, with two Nobel Prize winners Prof. Jean-Marie Pierre Lehn, Prof. Jules Hoffmann and Prof. Alain Beretz, President of the University of Strasbourg
A continuation of the 15th Anniversary celebration events for MUST was witnessed on the campus of the University of Strasbourg (l’Université de Strasbourg) in France on April 8, 2015. Professor Jean-Marie Pierre Lehn, American and French Academician, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 1987, was conferred Honorary Doctorate in Science at a ceremony attended by Professor Alain Beretz, President of the University of Strasbourg, Professor Jules Hoffmann, Nobel laureate and his wife, and the students and colleagues of Professor Lehn, together with Mrs. Lehn. In his welcome speech, Chair Professor Liu Liang, President of MUST, highly praised Professor Lehn for his great contribution to his research in chemical basis of “molecular recognition”, as well as his involvement with creating platforms for research collaboration with scientists at MUST. Professor Lehn had given various lectures to students and faculty members at MUST in 2014 which were greatly respected and with positive response.
Professor Beretz expressed during his welcome speech that he was extremely honored to attend the Conferring Honorary Doctoral Degree ceremony presented to Professor Lehn who is a well praised Nobel prize winner of the school. Professor Beretz also extended his thanks and welcome to Chair Professor Liu Liang for presenting the Honorary Doctorate to Professor Lehn. When recalling the past 15 years of MUST, President Liu pointed out that MUST was originally built from scratch where the site was covered by seawater and marshes, and has now become the youngest among the “Top 100 Universities” across the Strait in which the campus culture featuring harmony and excellence, pragmatism and development are gradually developed. He also remarked that MUST will continue the direction of attaching equal importance to both teaching and research, and further attract those talents to join MUST so as to ensure quality education, excellent research and international outreach.
In his acceptance speech, honorary doctorate recipient Nobel laureate Professor Lehn recalled two of his memorable experiences of receiving his very first honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Jerusalem in 1984, and Charles University in Prague in 1990 right after the fall of the Iron Curtain when half of Europe opened up. Professor Lehn pointed out that receiving the honorary doctoral degree from MUST has a special meaning to him this time as MUST accomplished its missions in a city considered as the world capital of casinos and gambling, for the benefit of its citizens and of future generations.
During the meeting prior to the ceremony, Professor Beretz and Chair Professor Liu Liang shared their experiences in leading the institutions to turn challenges into opportunities. The main strategy is internationalization in higher education. Both institutions have been making progress in their efforts in diversifying student populations and recruiting faculty members with diverse educational and/or work experiences. Both Presidents also discussed potential future collaboration, emphasizing expectations for concrete deliverables for cross-border collaboration. Professor Francis Kern, Vice President for international relations, also provided highlights of their internationalization efforts.
During the meeting, Professor Elaine Lai-Han Leung, Assistant Dean of Macau Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health, shared the recent progress and development of MUST State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicines whereas Professor Schini-Kerth of University of Strasbourg also shared their study results on food nutrition sector.
A highlight of the visit by the MUST delegate, which includes Chair Professor Liu Liang, President of MUST, Professor Jianrong Sun, Associate Vice President for international affairs, Visiting Professor Shuiping Jiang, and Professor Elaine Lai-Han Leung, was a meeting with Nobel laureate Professor Jules Hoffman. Professor Hoffman has been a frequent visitor to mainland China as well as Hong Kong in recent years and has shown great interest in future collaboration with MUST.
