A delegation from Utah met this summer with Chinese scholars, scientists, and government officials in Wuxi, China, to discuss collaborative efforts on environmental and renewable energy issues.

The Utah delegation was led by Mary Hubbard, then-dean of USU’s College of Science and current vice provost for international education at USU.  Dora Brunson, program coordinator for international research, and Mark Thomas, field study director, also represented USU in the delegation.

Delegates focused their efforts on environmental remediation of Lake Taihu, the third-largest freshwater lake in China, in the Wuxi region.  Excess pollution and poor management practices have resulted in the overgrowth of large blooms of blue-green algae in the lake, which threaten animal and plant life in the area.

In discussions, the delegation took first steps in integrating data from the Wuxi government and U.S. researchers in order to design a comprehensive long-term plan for management and sustainability of Lake Taihu.

“The objective of the conference was to begin making a holistic management plan—one that would look at all factors involved in the health of the region, and not just a few in isolation,” said Hubbard.

The conference was organized by Utah-Taihu Institute of Environmental Research, a non-profit consortium of U.S. universities and Chinese research institutes established to share scientific research and to promote global, sustainable growth policies, natural resource management practices, and technology transfer.  The symposium was co-sponsored by Wuxi Municipal Government.

“This relationship between UTIER and the Wuxi Government is unique,” said Brunson.  “There are few instances where a foreign municipality proactively seeks help from international researchers.  As we see positive results from this interaction, we hope many more relationships like this will be formed as a result of our successes.”

In addition to the conference, UTIER brought a group of 30 students from the USU Jon M. Huntsman School of Business to Wuxi to meet with students from Jiangnan and Nanjing Universities and to attend ecological development and remediation exhibitions.

The Wuxi partnership and other international relationships are facilitated at USU by the Office of Global Engagement, established in 2009 to aid faculty in creating international education, research and outreach connections.  The office represents a collaboration between USU’s vice president for research and provost, with DeeVon Bailey serving as associate vice president for international research and Mary Hubbard serving as vice provost for international education.  With a century-long legacy of international engagement, USU continues its land-grant tradition of sharing information and knowledge worldwide. See http://internationalresearch.usu.edu/ for more information.

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