On March 31, 2015, Margaret Leinen, President of the American Geographical Union (AGU) along with Christine W. McEntee, Executive Director and CEO of AGU, Frank J. Krause, Chief Operating Officer of AGU, and Sue Webb, International Secretary of AGU, visited Peking University (PKU) and were received at Linhuxuan by Wang Jie, Vice President of PKU. Fu Suiyan, Secretary of the CPC School of Earth and Space Science Committee, Zhu Tong, Dean of the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Zhang Dongxiao, Dean of the College of Engineering, Liu Yanhong, Deputy Dean of the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Hu Yongyun, the Dean of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences of the Physics College were also present.
Vice President Wang first extended a warm welcome to the AGU delegation. Margaret Leinen gave a general summary of AGU and explained their goals. She also noted that AGU has over 6,000 members specializing in geophysics, with 40% coming from abroad. She added that AGU was seeking partnerships with other scientific societies in order to increase membership, and she said AGU is looking for strengthened collaboration with PKU to better service scholars in China, which is a nation with great potential for cooperation.
In Christine W. McEntee briefing, she said that AGU was working on spreading its scientific journal and that she hoped that AGU could connect with more Chinese scholars so that their work would be available worldwide.
Vice President Wang complimented AGU on its achievements, mentioning that PKU had a distinct edge in environmental sciences and marine sciences, which had a close relationship with human life, and he also said that he expected there to be more opportunities for students of PKU to work with AGU.
Professors of PKU and the delegation of AGU had a fruitful discussion after the meeting. Margaret Leinen proposed that Chinese scholars should submit more papers to AGU, while Zhang Dongxiao and Liu Yongyan agreed and suggested that AGU adopt review criteria for Chinese scholars.
Written by: Wang Runjian
