May 6, 2005

By Krishna Ramanujan

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The president of the China Agricultural University (CAU), Chen Zhangliang, has invited Cornell University President Jeffrey S. Lehman to Beijing, China, to deliver a keynote lecture in September 2005, to 120 university presidents from China and around the world. The speech will be part of CAU's centennial anniversary celebration.

Chen said he was interested in hearing Lehman speak about Cornell's world-renowned agricultural program. Given the importance of agriculture, Chen said that he was concerned that fewer Chinese students seek out an agriculture-related education than in the past.

The two met in the A.D. White House on the Cornell campus May 6 on the morning of Slope Day, which, Lehman explained to an amused Chen, is the annual student event to celebrate the last day of classes at Cornell. Chen, a biotechnology pioneer, discussed his early work as an innovator of techniques for transferring genetic material from one plant species to another. His early work involved the transfer of a gene for soy starch into tobacco plants.

Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and CAU share a successful dual degree program. The program brought seven exchange students from China last fall to study at Cornell for two years. The program is part of the China-Cornell New Century Initiative, which also includes new partnerships with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in medicine and with Beijing University in education.

"I was so impressed by the students," said Lehman of his meeting with the current CAU students. "They were so smart and enthusiastic."

"Cornell has taken such good care of them," Chen replied. "The students are so happy. Some of them have found a boyfriend or a girlfriend," he laughed.

The two presidents discussed the possibility of future reciprocal grants for students from both countries to study at each university.