2011-09-29

A delegation from University of Alberta (UofA) has recently visited SUMC to hold talks and engage in working meetings aimed at advancing the implementation of the SUMC-UofA Joint PhD Program.

The delegation consisted of Prof. Paul Melancon, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, and Assistant Prof. Paige Lacy, Director of the Graduate Education Program in UofA Department of Medicine. After a welcome ceremony, in which Dean Gu, Vice-Dean Huang, and Prof. Xia Huo participated, the two sides engaged in talks about the joint PhD program.

The joint PhD program with UofA was launched in 2010 as a three-year program for Chinese doctoral students involving basic medical research projects jointly developed and co-supervised by SUMC and UofA faculty. In this program, students will start their research projects at SUMC (2 years) and complete their doctoral research at UofA (1 year).

The meetings saw good progress made on the detailed implementation of the joint PhD program. In addition, agreement was reached on an important extension of the joint PhD program which will allow clinical medical students at SUMC and junior clinical doctors at SUMC’s affiliated hospitals to study for a doctorate degree at UofA.

Another round of fruitful talks was concluded with a Q&A session for interested students and prospective SUMC candidates, as well as lectures by the visiting faculty on recent advances in their respective research fields of cell biology and pulmonary diseases.