On 9 September, the SDU-ANU Joint Science College (JSC) team led by Chang Xiaomei, Vice Dean, visited School of Life Sciences (SLS) on Qingdao Campus for an in-depth academic exchange to fully implement Shandong University’s strategy of integrated development, bolster international cooperation for joint building and sharing of education resources to improve the college’s capacity to nurture talents. The visiting team includes the teaching group from ANU Research School of Biology, a JSC teacher of biology and relevant staff.
The visiting team was first warmly welcomed by vice deans, Bai Mingyi and Zhang Wei, SLS. At the meeting, the four members of A/Prof. Benjamin Schwessinger’s research team reported one by one on their scientific research progress and results followed by thorough discussions with the SLS participating scholars in related areas.
A/Prof. Benjamin Schwessinger then gave a lecture entitled “Evolution of fungal plant pathogens” to the faculty and students at SLS. He illustrated that fungal plant pathogens are a threat to global food security, emphasizing the need to understand how fungal pathogens evolve and adapt. He then talked about the impacts of genome evolution on adaptation and matching types on virulence evolution in addition to how to improve understanding on a broad host range rust fungus and detect novel incursion earlier on to fight rust epidemics.
In the free exchange session, Benjamin patiently answered the questions raised by the participating professors. The faculty members and students from SLS showed their interest in the data collection equipment used for pathogen samples at ANU and they were all engaged in an in-depth discussion regarding certain research highlighted in the lecture.
After the lecture, the team visited the laboratories in School of Life Sciences led by Prof. Bai Mingyi and the library on Qingdao Campus.
SDU-ANU Joint Science College has given full play to its advantage of Chinese-foreign cooperative education in this cross-campus academic exchange to promote mutual learning in the same discipline area. It has set up a platform for international academic exchanges among the campuses. More importantly, the School of Life Sciences on Qingdao Campus has established close ties with Australian National University via the exchange, laying a good foundation for cooperation between the two sides in joint scientific research and exchange of talents in the future.
