The international exchanges between members of International Joint Laboratory of Regional Pollution Control (IJRC) were greatly restricted due to the wide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both sides of IJRC, the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of Peking University (CESE-PKU) and Forschungszentrum Jülich (Jülich), have been trying best to establish mutual online contact. The IJRC future work plan workshop was held via ZOOM on November 17. Prof. Andreas Wahner, IJRC Dean of German counterpart, Prof. Astrid Kiendler-Scharr, Dr. Anna Novelli and Dr. Hendric Fuchs etc. from Jülich and Prof. Min HU, IJRC Executive Dean, Prof. Limin Zeng, Dr. Keding LU, Dr. Yong LIU (Vice Dean of CESE in charge of international exchanges), Dr. Song GUO, Dr. Xin LI, Dr. Hancheng DAI from CESE-PKU, and visiting scholar Dr. Zhaofeng Tan attended the meeting.
Firstly, Prof. Min HU reviewed the structure, research orientation, operation mechanism and joint educational program of IJRC. She summarized recent achievements according to the acceptance requirements of China MOE (Ministry of Education). After that, she introduced the success of summer school in recent 3 years organized by both sides, which was welcomed by more and more students not only from both sides but from institutes and universities home and abroad. Though personnel exchanges were somewhat affected by the pandemic that to some degree hindered joint research work, IJRC still achieved outstanding research progress with up to 20 joint papers published, strengthening cooperative link between two sides.
Screenshot of participants online
Attendants exchanged viewpoints freely and extensively on IJRC future development and construction. The main topics were as follows:
(1) To carry out field campaigns respectively during April and May in Hefei and during June and July in Chengdu with CESE-PKU as the main task undertaker, Jülich side will offer online instrument measurements and data analysis.
(2) To conduct chemical reaction mechanism experiments in SAPHIR chamber in Germany with CESE-PKU design- Jülich implementation mode.
(3) To continue to organize online compact course “Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics”, with “Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics” as an alternative, inviting excellent world-recognized scientists as lecturers, and upgrade the summer school to focus on “ Atmospheric Pollution and Climate Change” or “Carbon Neutrality”.
(4) To hold a specialized seminar on atmospheric OH chemistry at EGU annual conference in 2022 and to organize special issues at international journals.
(5) To hold high-level international forum oriented at environment pollution control or climate change and carbon neutrality with both online and offline meeting so as to further improve the joint lab’s international influence.
(6) With the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino- German diplomatic relations to come in 2022, CESE-PKU intends to unite the Germany Embassy in China and Hemholts Association Beijing Office to hold academic exchange activities.
Both sides agreed that under the circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic, keeping regular and timely online exchanges and communications is extremely important for building up the joint laboratory. The consensus was reached to have regular meetings to keep updated with each other’s research progress with the aim to better construct IJRC.
