On August 27, Luan Li, Chief Technology Officer of PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) for the Asia-Pacific region, and other guests visited Nankai University. Chen Jun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice president of Nankai University, met the guests. The two sides held a symposium in the joint building of the Balitai campus, attended by some academic backbones from the College of Chemistry and the Institute of Applied Chemistry and Engineering.

Chen Jun, on behalf of Nankai University, welcomed the guests from PPG and expressed the appreciation for PPG’s support, such as offering jobs, internship opportunities and scholarships for students from Nankai University and its School of Chemistry, which shows PPG’s unwavering enthusiasm in science and education over the years. Chen pointed out that Professor Zhang Kezhong founded China’s first research institute of applied chemistry at Nankai University in 1932 and advocated the combination of learning and application. Therefore, Nankai University has a profound foundation for research in fields of applied chemistry and new energy, yielding fruitful scientific research results, and it has always been committed to serving the national economy. In recent years, in response to major national needs in fields such as electric vehicles and renewable energy, Nankai University has been actively undertaking scientific research tasks, practicing while exploring the building of new engineering major “New Energy Science and Engineering” and its related talent training. Chen Jun said that Nankai University will give full play to its advantages in R&D, exploit its talent pool, keep strengthening moral education and cultivating people, enhance the integration of science and technology and that of production and education, deepen cooperation between the university and the enterprises, and promote technological innovation and the commercialization of research achievements.

Luan Li introduced the development history of PPG. She said that based on the coatings industry, PPG is also drawing blueprint in new energy, energy storage and other fields. A PPG global innovation research and development center located at Tianjin TEDA is currently under construction, and hopefully, with the help of the outstanding human resources and scientific research strength of Nankai University, the two sides can deepen cooperate and promote S&T innovation and technology transfer.

PPG, founded in 1883 with its headquarters in Pittsburgh, USA, is a global manufacturing company that produces and carries out business operations in paints, coatings, glass, chemicals and special materials. As a leading company in the global industry, PPG is also one of the Fortune 500 companies.

 (Reported by Zhenhua Yan, Translated by Ziyu Wang,Edited by Davide Francolino and JianjingYun)