Imperial College London delegation to attend World Economic Forum in China

A delegation of Imperial College London will attend the World Economic Forum in Dalian on Thursday, the leading British university said Monday.

The delegation, led by President of Imperial College London Alice Gast, will include world famous scholars, such as immunologist Professor Maggie Dallman, data scientist Professor Yike Guo and synthetic biologist Dr Tom Ellis.

At the World Economic Forum in Dalian on Thursday, Professor Gast will speak about how the public and private sectors can successfully collaborate to boost innovation, research and development, while other scholars will present their latest research findings and how they could be put to industrial benefit.

With more than 2,000 Chinese students, 14 percent of the entire student population, Imperial College London has close cooperation with Chinese universities and enterprises in a wide field, including Huawei, CSR, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University.

"Imperial is pleased to collaborate with China's leading businesses and universities while educating many of the country's finest students. We have much to learn from each other, and we can achieve a lot together," said Alice Gast.

Professor Maggie Dallman also praised Chinese students' performance in the university, saying "almost every day I meet brilliant Chinese students at Imperial who are willing to take risks, and to apply their outstanding intellectual skills to tackling societal problems. They are helping defeat climate change, cure diseases and to create new opportunities for economic growth. I look forward to exchanging ideas with more young scientists in China."

Cooperation and communication between Imperial College London and Chinese universities and businesses have grown rapidly in recent years, and less than a decade, Imperial College London and Chinese universities has cooperated 2,000 publications, while the number of joint papers increased by three times.

"It's really excellent that cooperation can bring both people from different disciplines together and people from different countries, because they look upon problems in different ways, and they can solve those problems by working together from their different perspective," Professor Gast told Xinhua.

Beside Dalian, the university delegation will also visit Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, to meet Chinese students who are considering applying to the university and taking up careers in science, technology, engineering and medicine. Endit