The first doctoral student in the UD-XMUDual Ph.D. Degree Program in Oceanography, Zhaoyun Chen,defended his dissertation on Tuesday, Nov. 26 (Monday evening, Nov. 25, US EST), 2013 in Zhou Longquan Building on Xiang’an Campus, Xiamen University. Dean of College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment in UD,Dr. Nancy Targett and Associate Dean of College of Ocean and Earth Sciences in XMU, Dr. Shaoling Shang made opening remarks before the defense. The faculty and students in the University of Delaware participated in the defense through the online video conference connection. Two committee members, Dr. Wenzhou Zhang who is visiting the University of Maine and Dr. Young-Heon Jo who is visiting South Korea, also connected to the defense room online.
There are totally 5 XMU students who have formally matriculated in the dual degree program in both universities so far. Chen’s successful defense demonstrates that Xiamen University has made exciting progress on high level education, and also cooperation between XMU and UD is efficient. As Dean Targett remarked, “With the defense today, we mark another milestone in our evolving partnership with Xiamen University.”
University of Delaware (UD) is Xiamen University (XMU) closed partner institution in the U.S., with a formal agreement supporting research collaboration. In 2008, two universities established the Joint Institute for Coastal Research and Management (Joint-CRM). The universities created a dual doctoral degree program in oceanography in 2010, in which several XMU and UD students are participating.
Chen was awarded a 2012 Chinese Ph.D. National Scholarship. He has three published first-autho rpaper sin SCI (Science Citation Index) journals and one additional manuscript ready to be submitted from his Ph.D. study. His dissertation is titled “Coastal Upwelling Study: Observations, Dynamic Analysis and Modelling”.
Chen’s UD dissertation committee includes:
Xiao-Hai Yan, UD Chair
Yuwu Jiang, XMU member
Young-Heon Jo, UD member
Wenzhou Zhang, XMU member
Additional defense committee to meet XMU requirement:
QuananZheng, University of Maryland, XMU Defense Committee Chair
Jianyu Hu, XMU, member
Shaoling Shang, XMU member
Yu Zhang, XMU member
Young-Heon Jo, UD member
Wenzhou Zhang, XMU member