President Stan Albrecht, on behalf of Utah State University, hosted a luncheon for a delegation from the Northwest University for Nationalities in Lanzhou, China, including its president, Yasheng Jin. Arranged by Logan business HyClone, the luncheon brought together representatives of the two universities to discuss possible educational and research collaborations and exchanges. Members of the Chinese delegation toured USU’s facilities and a number of academic departments.
Leland Foster, chief science officer for Fisher Scientific, HyClone’s parent company, welcomed luncheon guests.
“HyClone was a pioneer in entering the Chinese business world through a cooperative arrangement with a university,” Foster said. “Our business relationship, thanks to Northwest University for Nationalities, has been a success. We hope today’s visit will set the stage for a relationship between these two universities.”
Through an interpreter, President Jin addressed the group.
“We are especially grateful for President Albrecht hosting the lunch, which was as beautiful as the weather outside,” he said.
President Jin compared the two universities, both of which are located in the western portion of their respective countries. The Chinese university was established in 1950 to support the education of the country’s minority populations.
“We hope for a successful relationship,” Jin said. “We would like to collaborate with Utah State University in a number of areas. Based on our relationship with HyClone, we believe we can have a successful and productive relationship with your university.”
The Chinese university is interested in a number of areas, including technology, engineering, life sciences and more. Exchanges in undergraduate education and cooperative research in graduate programs will be pursued. Faculty exchanges, for research and teaching, could also take place.
“Thank you for bringing us together in this way,” USU’s President Albrecht said. “HyClone was established on this campus, and we are happy that our relationship with the company is being extended through these activities today. On behalf of Utah State University, I extend a special welcome. We are delighted to have you here today.”
Albrecht, and Vice President for Research Brent Miller, who also attended the luncheon, recently returned from China, where other collaborative efforts were established. (See this issue’s feature story.)
“We were all impressed with the tremendous investment made by the Chinese government in higher education,” Albrecht said. “We are impressed with this investment and find tremendous opportunity to partner with your great institution. You will visit some of our strongest departments on campus, and we will look for opportunities to interact. We are also delighted to have a third partner [HyClone] in this relationship.”
Following the remarks, representatives from the two universities exchanged gifts.
HyClone, founded by then USU professor Rex Spendlove, pioneered serum collection, filtration and processing techniques used to produce high quality, reliable serum products. It is a world leader in manufacturing cell culture media, sera and bioprocess container systems. The company has customers worldwide, served from its headquarters and primary manufacturing facility in Logan, Utah. Additional sites are located in the United Kingdom, Belgium, China and New Zealand.
