Tsinghua confers Honorary Professorship to Tel Aviv University President Joseph Klafter
President of Tel Aviv University (TAU), Professor Joseph Klafter, was conferred the title of Honorary Professorship of Tsinghua on June 7th at a conferring ceremony held in Schwarzman College.
A well-known figure in the field of chemical physics, Professor Klafter has been instrumental in building a relationship between Tel Aviv University and Tsinghua University for close to a decade.
“This ceremony is also a symbol of the enduring friendship and an even closer partnership between our two universities,” said President of Tsinghua University, Qiu Yong, who presented the certificate to Klafter. “So now President Klafter and I both belong to Tsinghua community and TAU community. We will continue to serve as bridges between our two universities. ”
Last year in May, President Qiu Yong was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University while on an official visit there.
In Professor Klafter’s acceptance speech, he called for further collaboration in the areas of smart cities, renewable energy, green chemistry, food security and quantum communication. He reiterated that Tel Aviv University’s partnership with Tsinghua is also a demonstration of its commitment to Israel-China relations.
“The Chinese journey has been very fascinating for me. As Confucius said, wherever you go, go with all your heart. This I think, was my journey. So thank you very much for this honor,” Professor Klafter said.
Also present was the Israeli ambassador to China His Excellency Zvi Heifetz. The ambassador said that Professor Klafter was a man of exceptional quality using the Yiddish word “Mentsh”, which means a person of noble character and of integrity.
During Professor Klafter’s tenure as president of the university, Tsinghua and Tel Aviv University have established numerous collaborations over the years, including XIN Center, an interdisciplinary innovation platform for technology transfer and training, and the 7 + 7 Research University Alliance where seven Chinese universities and seven Israeli universities will cooperate in research and exchanges.
Writer: Alexis See Tho
Editor: Zhu Lvhe
