Dr Xu is a Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University with research experiences in smart materials, nanotechnology, functional composites, energy materials, flexible electronics, bio-MEMS device. He is currently the vice-chairman of The Chinese Society of Chemical Science and Technology (CSCST-UK) and one of the 2015 recipients of the RSC-CSCST Emerging Talent travel grant. As part of his trip to China, he attended and chaired the UK-Sino Forum on Clean Energy and Environmental Engineering Technology, which was co-organized by University of Nottingham Ningbo campus and CSCST-UK. He gives a brief account of his trip to China below.
Dr Ben Xu (Northumbria University, UK)
, I took the opportunity to visit my collaborators (i.e. Dr Yingzhu Jiang) in Zhejiang university to discuss the conference talks to be presented at the UK-Sino Forum on Clean Energy and Environmental Engineering Technology. We also discussed possible paper publications, collaborations and funding opportunities for 2016.
Dec 27th – 29th, I visited some local industrial partners in Zhejiang Province to initiate some collaborative work with industrial partners and met some attendees of the UK-Sino Forum on Clean Energy and Environmental Engineering Technology.
Dec 29th – 31st, I arrived in Ningbo on 29th, and was tasked to coordinate the UK speakers (Dr Xiaodong Wang from University of Aberdeen and Yaoyao from Cambridge) for their travelling and accommodations. Early morning on the 30th, the forum started at the International Conference Centre at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo campus (UNNC). There was about 160 attendees in this event, including ~ 100 postgraduate students in the engineering field. The Vice Chair of the UNNC, Professor Chris Rudd, gave the opening remarks to welcome all the attendees.
Professor Chris Rudd, Provost, University of Nottingham Ningbo China
The forum was designed to discuss up to date science and technologies in Engineering and Environment fields. The major topic focussed on modern chemical engineering techniques and products that increase our understanding of environment protection, including selected fundamental subjects such as thermodynamics, materials and applied engineering technologies. The lectures in the forum were presented in a tutorial review style by experts in related fields. This was followed by a very interactive Q&A session, which is a crucial element of this forum to promote the research excellences to postgraduate students.
Roundtable discussions
I facilitated the chairing for half of the session, and also delivered a keynote talk on the topic of ‘Smart Materials and Techniques for Future Engineering’. There were three UK researchers giving presentations at this event; the other speakers were Dr Xiaodong Wang (University of Aberdeen), and Miss Yaoyao Zheng (University of Cambridge).
Dr Xiaodong Wang (University of Aberdeen, UK)
Miss Yaoyao Zheng (University of Cambridge, UK)
The event was a great success and finished with a celebratory banquet dinner. I left China to take an early morning flight back to the UK on the 31st of December.
Conference Group photo
