A visit to NKUA by a delegation from Harbin Institute of Technology, China

A delegation from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, visited recently  the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The Chinese delegation consisted of Liang Zhen (Harbin Institute of Technology, Vice-President), Jian Xiong (Office of Global Affairs, Director), Hang Zhao (Shenzhen International School of Design, Vice-Dean), Xue Li (Faculty of Social Science, Director), Chunyu Du (School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Vice-Dean), and Lu Li (Office of Global Affairs, Program Coordinator). Upon arrival, the delegation received a warm welcome from the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, International Relations, and Extroversion, Professor Sophia Papaioannou. Also present at the occasion were Dr Georgios Vougioukalakis,Associate Professor at the NKUA’s Department of Chemistry, and Ms Fotini Fryda, Head of the European and International Relations at the NKUA’s Directorate of Public Relations and History.

The Vice-Rector, Professor Papaioannou, gave the delegation a history overview of the University, focusing on its Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes of Study—including the ones taught in English—and the Institution’s bilateral cooperation agreements, particularly those between NKUA and China or Chinese Universities. It is important to note that the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens places special emphasis on international cooperation agreements and extroversion.

An existing collaboration in the field of third-generation solar cells and ‘smart’ sensors based on luminescent materials between the research team of Associate Professor at the NKUA’s Department of Chemistry, Georgios Vougioukalakis (http://users.uoa.gr/~vougiouk/), and Associate Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tengling Ye, provided the main impetus for the partnership between the two Institutions. Within the context of the above collaboration, Georgios Vougioukalakis’s research team designs and synthetizes the organic molecules and advanced materials required for these electronic devices, and Tengling Ye’s team builds the devices.