About JRI

Mission of JRI | Motivation | History of JRI | About PKU | About UCLA

Mission of JRI

Research

• Promote joint collaborative research
• Jointly seek research funding from government and private sources
• Facilitate technology transfer of collaborative research results

Education

• Jointly train students as future leaders with global perspective
• Host exchange faculty and students
• Facilitate the sharing of teaching materials

Other collaborations

• Host and/or sponsor international workshops and conferences
• Homes for UCLA alumni in Beijing, and PKU alumni in Southern California

Motivation

Extensive research collaborations between PKU and UCLA faculty in multiple areas of science, engineering, and medicine.

• Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Diseases: Identification of Novel Biomarkers (led by Yifang Zhu from UCLA and Xinghua Qiu from PKU)
• Genetic analysis of major depressive disorder in Chinese women (led by Jonathan Flint, professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA and PKU’s Institute of Population Research)
• High-performance and Energy-efficient Computing for Image Reconstruction: Theory, Implementation and Applications (PKU team: Ming Jiang Peking Univ. (co-PI) Guojie Luo, Eric Liang, Rui Chen, Huizhu Jia, Jiansheng Yang, Heng Mao, Yong Cui; UCLA team: Jason Cong (co-PI), Alex Bui, Nicholas Brecha, William Hsu, Luminita Vese)
• Health and air pollution toxicity-related measurements of particles (led by Suzanne Paulson at UCLA's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Mei Zhang at PKU)
• Computer-aided design of integrated circuits and systems (led by Jason Cong in the Computer Science Dept.)
• Developmental Biology and Chemical Genomics (led by Prof. Shuo Lin in Dept. of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology).

An incomplete inventory by PKU showed over 100 joint publications in 2004-2008

• UCLA is the No. 1 research partner of PKU (measured in terms # joint publications).

JRI will further research collaboration in these areas and attract more

Leverage these research collaborations to provide a unique opportunity to train students with international experience

• Goal? Train future leaders with global perspective

History of JRI

The first Joint Research Institute between any UC campus with an overseas university!

• June 2008: The concept of JRI was proposed during the visit to PKU by UCLA delegation led by Chancellor Block and VP Entrikin
• Aug. 2008: Concrete proposal being formed during Prof. Cong's visit to PKU, and presented to PKU Provost and dean's council
• Oct. 2008: PKU Provost Lin officially endorsed the support of JRI during PKU delegation's visit to UCLA
• Jan. 2009: Extensive discussions about the Master Affiliate Agreement (MAA) between PKU and UCLA
• Feb. 2009: MAA signed by PKU VP Li and UCLA Provost Waugh, VP Entrikin, and VP Atchison
• March May 2009: Extensive discussions on JRI Implementation Agreement; initial funding from both campuses approved
• June 2009: signing of JRI Implementation Agreement

About Peking University

Brief introduction to Peking University

• Founded in 1898, the first national comprehensive university in China
• 5 faculties, 45 schools/departments, 271 institutes/centers
• Enrollment: 14,662 undergraduates, 16,666 graduates; Faculty & Staff: about 16,000
• 55 Academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering
• Received about 1.04 billion RMB in natural, engineering and medical sciences in 2008
• One of the best Health Science Centers with 8 affiliated hospitals in China
• On the web at www.pku.edu.cn

About UCLA

Brief introduction to UCLA

• Founded in 1919, the biggest campus in UC system
• 13 institutes and about 60 departments
• Enrollment:
  • 25,928 undergraduates,
  • 11,548 graduates;
  • Faculty & Staff: about 28,000;
  • For 2008, UCLA had more freshman applicants (55,409) than any other U.S. university.
• Highlights of faculty/graduate awards
  • 5 UCLA faculty members and four UCLA graduates are Nobel Laureates;
  • 9 UCLA faculty members have been awarded the National Medal of Science;
  • 9 MacArthur Fellow "Genius Grant" recipients;
  • 3 Pulitzer Prize winners
• Received more than $880 million in grants and contracts in FY 07 -08;
  • Among top five universities in the nation in expenditures from grants and contracts in science, medicine and engineering
• One of the top three American hospitals and "the best Hospital in the West"
• On the web at www.ucla.edu

Published: Monday, March 19, 2012