On June 4, 2019, the International Office of Tsinghua University and the Latin American Center of Tsinghua University jointly received a Delegationfrom theUniversity of Chile,as well as organized exchange meeting and campus visit. The Delegation was led by the Vice President of the University of Chile, Professor Flavio Salazar, and the group experts came from the School of Mathematics and Physics, the School of Medicine, the School of Chemistry, and the School of Pharmacy, etc.

The meeting was hosted by Professor Taotao Chen, Director of the Latin American Center. Professor Wenming Zou, Associate Dean of the School of Science of Tsinghua University, Professor Shude Mao of the Department of Astronomy, and Professor Yuegang Zhang of the Department of Physics were invited to participate in the exchange. At the same time, Ms. Hongyan Zhou from the International Office was invited to make an introduction about Tsinghua University to the Delegation.

Professor Chen gave her warm welcome to the Delegation and believed that it was a very precious and rare opportunity for exchanges between both universities. Then Professor Chen introduced the establishment and the current development of Tsinghua University Latin America Center to the Delegation. She said that the Center can discuss various forms of cooperation with Chilean universities, such as teacher and student exchange, joint research, and jointly holding academic activities.

"There is great potential in thw cooperation between the two schools. The Center will actively assist such cooperation in the future", Prof. Chen expressed.

Professor Taotao Chen presided over the exchange meeting

Professor Flavio Salazar, the vice president of the University of Chile, expressed his gratitude to Tsinghua University for receiving the Delegation. He said that China and Chile have had friendly relations for many years. President Piñera visited China a few weeks ago and proposed to strengthen the cooperation in the academic, scientific and technological aspects. Therefore, the purpose of the Delegation's visit is to strengthen mutual understanding with Tsinghua University and discuss how to establish and promote the cooperative relationship between the two universities.

"At present, the School of Business of the University of Chile and Tsinghua University have a good cooperative relationship, but the School of Mathematics and Physics has not yet established the collaboration with Tsinghua University, so I hope to broaden the cooperation in this area", Professor Salazar said.

He also suggested that in the future both universities can organize and promote together academic forums on science and technology between China and Chile.

Professor Zhang Yuegang from the Department of Physics introduced the Nano technology Research Center of Tsinghua University to the Delegation and looked forward to a fruitful cooperation between the two parties in the future.

Professor Wenming Zou, the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science, said that he has very good contact with professors at the University of Chile and has worked together or jointly held meetings. He introduced the international development of the Department of Mathematics and hoped to focus on the cooperation of doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows with the University of Chile.

Professor Shude Mao, the director of the Department of Astronomy, mentioned that Chile has unique conditions for studying astronomy, and the Department is very willing to cooperate with Chile in this regard. "Tsinghua also has students conducting research on extrasolar planets in Chile through international cooperation, and some results have been achieved. We are now discussing whether we can establish an observatory in Chile. If possible, we look forward to cooperating with the University of Chile in this regard in the future", said Professor Mao.

Finally, Professor Francisco Martínez, Dean of the School of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Chile, said that today's exchanges and discussions on cooperation with Tsinghua University were very meaningful. The University of Chile attaches great importance to strengthening research in the field of science and technology, which is also supported by the Country. At the same time, he introduced the clean energy technology research institute project being promoted by the Chilean government and believed that the field of clean energy engineering is an area with great potential for cooperation. He expressed that he hopes to strengthen cooperation with Tsinghua University in these two fields.

Photo of the Delegation and Tsinghua University experts