Major Events in 2006

Major Events in 2006

March

/ Prof. CHEN Jining was appointed by the Ministry of Education as the Vice President of Tsinghua University.
/ Dr. Klaus Toepfer, former United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was appointed Honorary Professor of Tsinghua University.
/ Tsinghua University-Toyota Research Center was established with Academician HAO Jiming as the Director.

April

/ Prof. YU Gang was appointed as the Chair of DESE.
/ DESE co-established Tsinghua-Hach Water Quality Monitoring Joint Research Center with Hach Company (USA).
/ A Scholarship named after the founding father of DESE, Mr. TAO Baokai was established. The Scholarship is based on donation from DESE faculty and alumni.

May

/ Tsinghua University was ranked as the Class A Institute in the National Environment Impact Assessment of Construction Projects by State Environmental Protection Administration of China (SEPA).
/ Mr. Lester Brown, President of The Earth Policy Institute visited Tsinghua and delivered a speech entitled "Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble-China Forcing World to Rethink its Economic Future".
/ Designed by DESE, the biggest advanced wastewater treatment project using Membrane Bio-Reactor technology in Asia was set up in Miyun District, Beijing City. The capacity of the treatment is 45,000 tons/day.
/ The 2006 session of Environment and Sustainable Development Leadership Program (ESDLP) was held at Tsinghua followed by a two-week study tour in the United States with great success. Mayors or vice mayors from 12 cities completed the full program.

June

/ Vice President CHEN Jining and Academician HAO Jiming were appointed the Deputy Directors of the Sixth Council of China Society for Environmental Sciences.

July

/ The Opening Ceremony of DESE''s new department building, Sino-Italian Energy and Environment Building (SIEEB), was held. Italian Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology XU Guanhua and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education ZHANG Xinsheng attended the event.
/ An exhibition of the winners'' works of the 1st Environmental-Friendly Science and Technology Competition was held in SIEEB. Mr. ZHANG Xinsheng, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education attended the exhibition and though high of the students'' creative works.
/ DESE was awarded as the Honored Group for promoting science and technology development during the tenth five-year plan of the country. Prof. ZHANG Xiaojian from the Division of Drinking Water Safety won the Award for individuals. Both of the awards were conferred by the Ministry of Construction of P. R. China.

August

/ Academician QIAN Yi and HAO Jiming, Vice President CHEN Jining won the membership of the National Environment Consultancy Committee.
/ Vice President CHEN Jining was appointed as the Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Committee of SEPA, while Prof. JING Wenyong was appointed as a member of the Committee.

September

/ Academician QIAN Yi was appointed as the Director of the Academic Affairs Committee of Tsinghua University.
/ Academician HAO Jiming won in the Second Distinguished Teacher of Higher Learning Institutions Award Competition.
/ H. E. Ms Helen Bjørnøy, Norwegian Minister of the Environment visited Tsinghua University and delivered a speech entitled "Some Big Issues in Our Time". After the speech, Ms Bjørnøy attended the ceremony for signing the Cooperation Agreement between DESE and Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA).

October

/ DESE rearranged the research divisions. Ten new research divisions were established in three broad areas, namely Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science and Environmental Management.
/ Dr. Corrado Clini, the Director General of the Department for Environmental Research and Development of the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory (IMET), was appointed the Guest Professor of Tsinghua University.
/ Tsinghua (Dept. of Environmental Science and Engineering)-Sanyo (R&D Headquarters) Environmental Technologies Joint Research Center were co-established by DESE and Sanyo Research and Development Center.

November

/ The International Workshop on Engineering Education for Sustainable Development was held. Co-organized by DESE, United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, the Workshop was attended by 150 high-level engineers and engineering students, including 30 overseas participants, and was opened by Vice Minister of Education, Zhang Xinsheng, chair of the UNESCO Executive Board.

December

/ DESE held a big ceremony to celebrate the 100th Birthday of Mr. TAO Baokai, the founding father of DESE and also one of the pioneers of environmental study in China. President of Tsinghua University, academician GU Binglin attended the event and delivered a speech to memorize Mr. TAO Baokai.
/ The course on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development offered by Academician QIAN Yi was selected as the 2006 Beijing Excellence Courses and National Excellence Courses.
/ Prof. HE Kebin and Prof. YU Gang, faculty of DESE gained the National Science Fund for Distinguished Youth Scholar.