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TJU Professors in TJTV Documentary

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Foreigners in Tianjin, an 8-episode documentary, was released on the TJTV Channel on May 19, 2019. Each episode of the documentary focuses on several foreigners. Through the wonderful stories of the protagonists, the documentary taps into all sections of social life in Tianjin, such as the history, economy, culture, science and technology, education, art, sports and cityscape, presenting touching stories and their aspirations for the future. 

As typical representatives of promoting international development of higher education in Tianjin, Dean Jay Siegel and Professor Kim Baldridge of the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology and Professor Aoki Nobuo of the School of Architecture at Tianjin University (TJU) participated in recording the third episode named “Bridge”, which was broadcast on TJTV Channel on May 22 and 24.

In June 2013, Jay Siegel left the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where he worked for 12 years, and subsequently accepted the appointment at TJU. As the first and only Dean of foreign origin at TJU since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Jay Siegel devotes himself to the thriving educational cause of this great country without hesitation. In the process of thoroughly understanding the history of Peiyang University, the predecessor of TJU, he opens a conversation with the past. 123 years ago, Charles Daniel Tenney, who also stood at an historic turning point, promoted the construction and development of Peiyang University. They share ideas, visions and passions that span a century but are remarkably similar. Kim Baldridge, wife of Jay Siegel, is the first foreign expert Professor Siegel introduced to TJU in his tenure. Professor Baldridge was once a professor of the University of Zurich and Director of the American San Diego Supercomputer Center. Since then she has played the role of Vice-Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology from June 2014, where she has introduced safety management concepts from famous overseas universities, established an international laboratory safety management system, implemented a green and safe laboratory system, and raised the standard of laboratory safety management in the school to an international level. In 2014, the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology was successfully approved as an “International Demonstration College” jointly launched by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and the Ministry of Education, and became one of the first four approved colleges in China. Jay Siegel was awarded the Certificate of Friendship, International Educator in China Award and the most influential foreign expert on the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up. Kim Baldridge was awarded the Certificate of Friendship and 2019 Distinguished Women in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Award. The couple were received by Premier Li Keqiang twice in Beijing on National Day in 2015 and Spring Festival in 2016.

The documentary shows that under the leadership of Professor Siegel, after more than six years of reform and construction, the proportion of foreign teachers has reached 46% in the school, exceeding that of countries like Japan and Germany and top international universities like Harvard and Oxford. Internationally famous experts and scholars like Jay Siegel and Kim Baldridge connect the history and the present, the East and the West, like an invisible bridge.

Aoki Nobuo came to the School of Architecture at TJU in 2006. He was employed by several top universities such as Tokyo University, Tsinghua University, Keio University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As the only long-term foreign professor in the field of Chinese cultural heritage, he devotes himself to the research and education of Chinese cultural heritage conservation. With the support of TJU and the School of Architecture, he and his Chinese colleagues established the International Research Center for Chinese Cultural Heritage Conservation at Tianjin University. Under his leadership, the Center was approved as a key scientific research base in Tianjin and one of the first think tanks in Tianjin. The think tank was highly praised by the three major think tanks evaluation systems (CTTI, AMI, CTTS SASS) in China, and ranked in the top ten in the cultural category of Chinese think tanks in 2017.

Aoki hopes to cultivate a generation of talented people with international vision for cultural heritage conservation. He has proposed a complete teaching system for heritage conservation and offered professional courses for graduate students. He has been committed to the international contribution of heritage conservation and contributed to the research and conservation of Tianjin’s cultural heritage. He has also published articles on creative cities promotion and endangered heritage conservation in important newspapers and magazines such as Outlook Weekly,Guangming DailyandChinese Social Sciences Today.In 2012, he put forward some suggestions for Tianjin creative city construction and industrial heritage conservation. Today, Tianjin is promoting the protection of industrial heritage and the application of world creative cities.

He and his team won the Best Paper Award of the International Conference on East Asian Architectural Culture twice in succession as well as theExcellent Paper Award of the Architectural Society of China. The team also won the first prize of the Science Research Famous Achievement Award in Higher Institutions, the Chinese Government Publishing Award, theArchitectural Institute of Japan Award, and the Architectural History Institute of Japan Award. The Tianjin Municipal People’s Government awarded him the Haihe Friendship Award in 2012 for his hard work.

The documentary shows the scientific research, protection and education activities of Aoki Nobuo and the International Research Center for Chinese Cultural Heritage Conservation of Tianjin University under his leadership, as well as the demeanor of a foreign scholar who is committed to making a contribution to international heritage conservation.

By: Deng Xiaoxuan

Editors: Ross Colquhoun, Sun Xiaofang