Recently, SUSTech's School of Environmental Science and Engineering held the 2017 Annual Strategic Seminar and Academic Steering Committee meeting.

The Environmental College Academic Steering Committee members attending the meeting included:

- American University of Wisconsin Professor Mary Anderson

- Stanford University professor and American Academy of Engineering Steven Gorelick

- California Institute of Technology and American Academy of Engineering Michael Hoffmann

- Qinghai University and Tsinghua University professor of civil engineering and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wang Guangqian,

- Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Ecological center researcher and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fu Bojie

Special guests invited to the event included

- Dean of the Peking University School of Engineering Zhang Dongxiao, who is also a National Distinguished Young Winner, and Academician of the US Academy of Sciences

- Professor of the University of Sheffield and member of the Royal College of Engineering David Lerner

- Member of the US Academy of Engineering and Professor of the University of Texas Austin Bridget Scanlon

- Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and SUSTech president Chen Shiyi

- Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Xu Zheng

The meeting was presided over by the president of the School of Environmental Sciences Pr. Zheng Chunmiao.

Meeting venue

Zheng Chunmiao gave a talk on the School of Environmental Sciences work over the past year, with highlights on the discipline construction status and future development strategies and objectives. Since its inception in May 2015, the School has developed rapidly and has made great progress. It has established a well-structured and dynamic team of professors, nearly 20 full-time, including 2 Outstanding Youth Fund winners, 2 National Excellent Youth Fund winners.

In the future development, the school will focus mainly on topics such as hydrology and water resources engineering, soil science and repair, industrial ecology, atmospheric science and many other subjects important in dealing with today's global challenges, with the aim of speeding up enrolments, student training and research work.

The National Excellent Youth Fund winner, Associate Dean of the College and Associate Professor Zheng Yi reported on the progress of undergraduate and postgraduate training, and analyzed the opportunities and challenges of teaching. Zheng introduced a number of innovative methods in teaching, including the summer courses in the United States and the Capstone Design courses which include working closely with the industry.The university lecturer Professor Liu Chongxuan then took to the stage tointroduce the school's "environmental science and technology comprehensive research platform" construction,followed by National Outstanding Youth Fund winner and college professor Liu Junguo who introduced the Environmental Institute of International Cooperation (Beijing) and the State Council special allowance experts.Professor Hu Qing then presented SUSTech's Engineering Technology Innovation Center (Beijing), with a report on the current situation and the future prospects for its development. In addition, university lecturers Professor Zheng Yan, Professor Deng Baolin, and university associate professors Kuang Xingxing,and Luke Gibson and Xia Yu, an assistant professor who is about to attend, reported on the progress of their ongoing research work.

After listening to the reports, the members of the Academic Steering Committee and the faculty were involved inintense discussions. Subsequently, the members of the Academic Steering Committee, Chen Shiyi and Zheng Chunmiao conducted a separate exchange on the topics of the school's teaching, research, and facultyconstruction and so put forward a number of constructive comments and suggestions, which will be submitted to the School of Environmental Sciences in the form of a formal report. The meeting for the next stage of the development of the school to further clarify the ideas and provide important guidance, is of great significance.

Contribution: School of Environmental Science and Engineering

Edited by: Jeremy Welburn