Following the mutual visits that took place in mid January 2013 and mid April 2013, a 9-member delegation led by Mrs. Marjan J. Oudeman, the President of the Executive Board of Utrecht University (UU), The Netherlands, visited The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) on 3 December 2013.

In the morning of the visit, one of the delegation members, Prof. Dop Bär, Professor of Experimental Neurology and Chair of the Executive Board of Studies of Utrecht University, had a meeting with Prof. Chan Wai-yee, Director of School of Biomedical Sciences and Prof. Woody Chan, Associate Director (Graduate Education) to discuss research placement for postgraduate students of Utrecht University. On that day afternoon, some of delegation members were arranged to meet with members of our School's Stem Cell & Regeneration Program, together with representatives from the Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology and the Faculty of Engineering to discuss research collaborations in area of regenerative medicine. Shortly after the meeting, the visitors were guided to tour the core research facilities available in our School.

Indeed, during the visit, the UU delegation signed a Memorandum of Understanding on establishing the CUHK-UU Joint Centre for Language, Mind and Brain. Prof. Chan Wai-yee and Prof. Richard Choy, Associate Member of our Reproduction, Development and Endocrinology Program will be two of the core members of this Joint Centre. The delegation visit not only enhanced the mutual understanding between our School and UU but most importantly strengthened our role in supporting the University when pursuing interdisciplinary research in areas of cognitive neuroscience, language acquisition, genetics, psychology and speech-language therapy.

The corresponding coverage by the Office of Academic Links (OAL) can be viewed here (English version only).

Group photo taken during the visit

Prof. Dop Bär (2nd from right) having meeting with Prof. Chan Wai-yee (1st from right) and Prof. Woody Chan (2nd from left)

Prof. Chan Wai-yee (1st from right in front row) guides the delegation to tour our core facilities