Last week, October 16, 2015, a large delegation from CSU visited Anhui Agricultural University (AAU) in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province in China. CSU and AAU co-organized the First International Conference on Modern Agricultural Extension and Technology Transfer. The CSU delegation was led by Provost Rick Miranda, Vice-President for Engagement Lou Swanson, Vice-President for International Affairs James Cooney, Vice-President for Research Alan Rudolph, Vice-President for Operations Lynn Johnson along with many other CSU leaders and faculty members from across CSU campus. The College of Agricultural Sciences was represented by Lee Sommers, Director Emeritus for Agricultural Experiment Station and Special Advisor to the CAS-Dean and also by Raj Khosla faculty in Soil & Crop Sciences.
The AAU is one of CSU’s 15 global strategic partners for international research and scholarship initiatives – the highest designation for CSU’s international strategic university partnerships . This visit was a follow-up to the establishment of a highly innovative international strategic partnership between CSU and AAU and creation of a Joint Institute for Agricultural Extension and Economic Development in December of 2014. As previously expressed by Dr. Lou Swanson, CSU Vice President for Engagement and Director of Extension that “One of the cornerstones of this partnership is working with AAU and the People’s Republic of China’s Ministries of Science and Technology and Education to create working model for university-based Extension in China”. The joint conference was well attended and received by both CSU and AAU.
