Distinguished alumni, their relatives, and friends gathered at SCPKU on October 8, 2019 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Yenching University, which until 1952 operated on the current site of Peking University. We were honored by the attendance of so many illustrious guests, including Isabel Crook, recent recipient of the Medal of Friendship awarded by President XI Jinping; He Liliang, a senior diplomat and wife of Yenching graduate, Huang Hua (former vice chairman of National People’s Congress); and Wei Mingyi, an alumnus of Yenching University and former president of the CITIC Group.

Image

Xu Wan, Han Jialin, Wei Mingyi, Isabel Crook, He Liliang, Jean Oi, Michael Crook, Xu Lian cutting the ribbon for the Stuart Room

Image

Front row: Children and friends of famous Yenching faculty. Back row: Carl Crook, artists Zhu Cheng and Li Bin. 

Image

Jean C. Oi, the Lee Shau Kee Director of SCPKU

Jean C. Oi, the Lee Shau Kee Director of SCPKU, spoke about Yenching University as a model of collaboration and friendship between the US and China. She used the occasion of the 100 Anniversary of Yenching University to announce the opening of a new state-of-the-art conference room at SCPKU.

Image

John Leighton Stuart Room allows state of the art, real time connectivity to over 250 classrooms, labs, conference facilities, and offices at Stanford University. 

The room was made possible by a generous gift by Cheng Jiashu (Josh), Executive Director at SCPKU, and his wife, Xu Wan, who named the room in honor of the first Yenching University President, John Leighton Stuart. Oi in thanking Josh and his wife stated that the John Leighton Stuart Room (the Stuart Room) would greatly advance the efforts begun by Yenching University and Dr. John Leighton Stuart to further US-China relations.  Dr. Stuart’s efforts in furthering US-China relations are legendary and remain an inspiration to this day. Josh Cheng and his wife have deep ties to Yenching University and to Stuart. Stuart personally recommended Xu Wan’s father, Xu Xianyu, when he graduated from Yenching University to study for a Ph.D. in mathematics in the United States in 1936. After receiving a doctorate in the United States, Dr. Xu returned to teach at Yenching University as a professor of mathematics. Xu Wan’s mother, Han Dechang, was a Yenching University music department graduate, and Josh Cheng’s mother and uncle all studied at Yenching University.

Image

CHENG Jiashu (Josh) and his wife, Xu Wan, unveiling the relief of John Leighton Stuart, with the copy of Li Bin’s painting of Stuart in the background

Mr. Li Bin, eminent artist of Chinese modern history, provided a wall sized copy of his famous painting “Farewell, Leighton Stuart” (see picture above) to help celebrate the occasion.

Image

Artist Li Bin chatting with Professor Wu Qing, whose parents were faculty at Yenching University where President John Leighton Stuart attended their wedding

Image

Cheng Jiashu (Josh) and He Liliang in front of John Leighton Stuart Room

Cheng Jiashu (Josh), in giving a brief history of Yenching University, noted the renewed attention Stuart has recently received from top leaders in China. He shows a clip of President XI Jinping at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou on September 4, 2016, when he identified John Leighton Stuart as one of the three historic bridge builders who helped to further establish the relationship and interaction between China and the world. President XI further added that “140 years ago, in June 1876, Mr. Stuart, who had served as US ambassador to China, was born in Hangzhou, in China. After living for more than 50 years in China, his ashes are placed in the Anxian Garden in the mid-levels of Hangzhou.”

After the ceremony and short presentation by Josh Cheng on the history of Yenching University, the audience was treated to a jubilant concert, performed by Zhao Kunyu, the Concert Master of the China National Symphony Orchestra, and an ensemble of leading young Chinese musicians.

Image

Zhao Kunyu, Concert Master of the China National Symphony Orchestra

Image

Listening to the concert and giving applause at the end of the evening

Professor Luis de Lecea, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Major Laboratories and Clinical and Translational Neurosciences Incubator), an SCPKU Faculty Fellow, organized a workshop on Sleep Regulation and Circadian Rhythms from Sept. 13-14 at SCPKU.

As many as 1/3 of adults experience serious sleep problems in their lifetime, yet the tools to treat sleep disorders have not increased significantly in the last 30 years. The last decade has seen unprecedented progress in basic science of sleep and China has generated an impressive number of publications at the forefront of this research area.  Prof. de Lecea and Dr. Wenjie Bian from Stanford convened a group of 13 researchers covering both basic and clinical aspects of sleep and circadian regulation.  Prof. Takeshi Sakurai from Tsukuba University and International Institute of Integrative Sleep Medicine delivered a keynote lecture on the neuronal circuitry of narcolepsy/cataplexy.  Dr. Zhian Hu from Chongqing Medical University showed evidence of a neuronal circuit controlling sleep and memory.  Dr. Zhili Huang from Fudan University showed recent data on the regulation of reward circuits by sleep. Dr. Xiao Bing Gao from Yale University provided evidence of the association between neuronal structures that regulate energy balance and sleep.  Dr. Wenjie Bian from Stanford presented his latest results on how sleep disruption during development affects social behavior in adults.  Dr. Qinhua Liu from NIBS in Beijing discussed his recent findings demonstrating a link between protein phosphorylation and sleep homeostasis.  Drs. Yun Kwok Wing from Hong Kong and Fang Han from the Peoples Hospital in Beijing and President of the Chinese Sleep Research Society presented clinical data on sleep disorders and narcolepsy.  The workshop was attended by ~20 students from PKU and other local institutions.  Participants concluded that this workshop was an innovative venue to discuss state of the art research and possible collaborations among researchers in the field of sleep neuroscience and medicine. 

In my mind, the Great Wall of China is an unprecedented feat of engineering that symbolizes an epic transformation - a structure that once was meant to keep people out, now welcomes millions into the country. In many ways, our knowledge of Rheology and our outlook on China went through a transformation of a similar scale over the course of the 2019 SCPKU rheology seminar.

Image

The rheology seminar offered by Prof. Gerry Fuller, started in mid-July with 15 students from diverse backgrounds – eight from Stanford and seven from the Chinese universities of Peking, Tsingua and Beihang. Together, over the course of eight lectures, we learned the fundamentals of rheology and its indispensable applications. The ones that excited us include predicting the stability of therapeutic solutions, designing materials for 3D printing and stabilizing/destabilizing foams and emulsions. The lectures were accompanied by two field trips that complemented the lecture content. The first one took us to a research lab in Beihang university where we got to observe advanced rheometric tools used to measure properties of soft living matter. The second one took us to the upstream and downstream divisions of the CNPC – one of the largest oil and gas producers in the world. There we learned about industry-grade high-throughput machinery used for enhanced oil recovery and processing. To top it off, the last two days of class were devoted to individual research presentations from students. This final session gave us a clearer understanding of the diverse research topics pursued by each student and the creative utilization of the material in different specializations. Aside from a good grasp of rheology, the seminar fostered strong professional connections and research collaborations. In particular, I am excited about a research collaboration that has been established between the research groups of Prof. Masao Doi at Beihang university and that of Prof. Gerry Fuller at Stanford.

Image

Along with the professional connections, what made the whole experience truly memorable were the close personal friendships that were formed. Right from day one, every Stanford student was paired with a student from one of the Chinese Universities. What followed were unforgettable experiences – be it a trip within the campus or around the forbidden city – there was never a wasted moment. The icing on the cake was undoubtedly the last day of class. After an exuberant dinner at SunLiTun, we all took off for an essential KTV party. We celebrated through the night, singing a mix of Chinese, Spanish and English. (My personal favorite was of course the trip to the Great Wall, and did I mention that all the Stanford students now have Chinese names?)

To sum it up, I would like to highlight the message delivered by the executive director of SCPKU on the first day of class, which I believe also embodies the vision of the SCPKU and its supporters. We need future leaders who can enhance international relationships, embrace diversity and encourage science. What better way to secure this future than to bring eager young minds from leading universities together and encourage them to live, love and learn with each other before they take on global responsibilities. 

With amazing programs like these, I am hopeful that any walls that are built in the future, like the Great Wall of China, will be to celebrate science and bring people together.

Image

Image

The Stanford Center at Peking University announced its newest pre-doctoral fellows and graduate seminar from July 2019 application round.

Image

SCPKU Announces Newest Fellows and Graduate Seminar
 

Pre-Doctoral Fellows:

• Sangyop Lee – Religious Studies, September, 2019
• Tongtong Zhang – Political Science, Oct. 1 – Dec. 30, 2019
• Nathan Hauthaler - Philosophy, Jan. 15 – June 15, 2020

Graduate Seminars:

Title: " Physical Activity and Health in China: Chronic Disease Consequences and Activity-Promoting Strategies in Adolescents and Young Adults "

• Dates: June 29 - July 17, 2020
• Instructor:  Randall Stafford, Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine
• Eligibility: Enrolled Stanford University students in good academic standing
• Stanford student application deadline: April 30, 2020

This summer I was very fortunate to be able to spend three weeks at the Stanford Center at Peking University (Běidà) for a short course on rheology. It was a really special opportunity for me to experience student life at my dad’s alma mater and get to know friends from Stanford, Peking, Tsinghua and Beihang University.

As we went out for meals, however, I quickly discovered that I was one of the only people on the trip who can’t handle spicy food! But don’t worry, if you’re like me, there are still plenty of delicious and affordable options to try in Beijing.

Image

SCPKU Rheology Class of 2019! A big thank you to Prof. Gerry Fuller, our TA Vinny, the SCPKU team, and everyone in the class for a wonderful three weeks in Beijing!

First of all, if you travel there during the summer months, it will be very, very hot. The best way to beat the heat is to eat lots of fruit, mung bean (has cooling properties), and ice cream! The cafeterias at Beida had fresh cut fruit, and we all fell in love with the (~1 USD) red dragonfruit (hóng huǒ lóng guǒ) there. There are also lots of ice cream flavors that are hard to find in the US, like red bean, white peach, durian, taro, honeydew, grape, etc.

Next, Beijing/northern China is known for a lot of flour-based dishes, so be sure to try the dumplings (shuǐ jiǎo), steamed buns (bāo zi), fried dough (yóu tiáo), pancakes (bǐng) and noodles of all sorts (miàn tiáo). Also, if you go to a restaurant specializing in Beijing food, a lot of things on the menu will not be spicy, like Peking Duck (běi jīng kǎo yā) and Zhajiang Noodles (zhá jiàng miàn). A fun place on Beida campus to get a Beijing street food is the jian bing Jiānbing shop, which is essentially a savory crepe with egg, sauce, a crispy interior, plus whatever add-ons you want. (Caution: the sauce is a little bit spicy…)

Beijing also has lots of cuisines from other parts of China, so make sure to try dishes like Shanghai style soup dumplings, Yunnan pineapple rice, and Taiwanese pork rice!

There are also lots of foods that you can pretty easily enjoy the non-spicy version of. Either you (or your friendly hosts!) can ask the waiter/waitress for no spice (“miǎn là” or “bù yào là”):

Shredded chicken cold noodle (jī sī liáng miàn) and bean curd noodle with veggies and sauce (liángpí) -- still tasty without the chili oil!

Hotpot (huǒ guō) and Grilled fish (kǎo yú) -- the spice is just in the broth, and there are many to choose from

And finally, of course, desserts are not spicy! Shaved ice (bào bīng), sago (xī mǐ lù), bubble tea, fluffy pancakes, mooncakes and old Beijing desserts (lǘ dǎgǔn and wāndòu huáng) are some favorites of mine. A newly popular boba place called HeyTea (xǐ chá) also has fully customizable drinks in case it’s too late for caffeine.

Overall, even if I couldn’t try all of the spicy foods, sharing meals was a great way to get to know everyone, and we all can’t wait to see our friends again. Who knows, maybe my spice tolerance will have gone up by then...

The 3rd Forum on Regulatory Science and Biomedical Innovations was successfully held on June 7-8^th, 2019, at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

Initiated and organized by the Stanford Center for Innovative Study Design. The focus of this year’s forum is on the Real-World Evidence in Biomedical Product Development and Regulatory Science. About 150 international and Chinese scholars and researchers, US and Chinese regulators, and pharma/biotech leaders attended the event.

Over the last decade, significant strides have been made in medical research, which leads to great improvement in human health. With increasing availability of real-world data (RWD), such as electronic health and medical records and mobile health data, and rapidly evolving analytic techniques to generate real-world evidence (RWE) from the RWD, there are vast research interests in academia, industry, and regulatory agencies on how to use the RWE to inform regulatory decision and to assess the potential benefits and/or risks of medical products. On May 8, 2019, the US FDA published the draft guidance for industry on “Submitting Documents Using Real-World Data and Real-World Evidence to FDA for Drugs and Biologics.” On May 29, 2019, the Chinese National Medical Product Administration (NMPA) published their call for comments on the draft guidance on “Basic Considerations for Using Real-World Evidence to Support Drug Development.” Our forum was timely organized to discuss the challenges and research opportunities on the topic.

Three keynote speakers were invited, representing academia, government, and industry. Our first keynote speaker was Professor Ping-yan Chen, Chair of the Department of Biostatistics, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. Professor Chen chaired development committee of tri-parties (Chinese academia, industry, and NMPA) for the Chinese draft of the guidance on RWE published on May 29, 2019. Professor Chen provided unique perspectives of their committee work and explained the considerations recommended in the guidance document. The second keynote speaker, Dr. Jing Chen, was from the Chinese NMPA on the evaluation of generic medications in China. The 3^rd keynote speaker was Dr. Donald Yin, Vice President and Head of Economic and Data Science at Merck. He shared with us the examples and insights on the use of real-world data and evidence in the pharmaceutical industry.

Two invited panel discussions on “The Challenges and Opportunities for Using RWE in Medical Produce Development and Regulatory Oversights” and “Statistical Evidence on Regulatory Decisions” were also well received.

In addition, there were six invited scientific sessions on topics from the use of historical control data in confirmative trials, challenges in regulatory evaluation of generic drugs, diagnosis test and prediction models, Use of RWE for regulatory decisions, big data and artificial intelligence in precision health, and from the real work data to real world evidence.

Several feedbacks commented that this was the highest quality academic event in recent years.

The event was co-sponsored by the Stanford Center at Peking University and Peking University Health Science Center. The event was funded in part by mProbe and Merck.

Image

The SCPKU summer workshop, "Chinese Corporations: A Case Study Workshop" led by Prof. Andrew Walder (Stanford) and Prof. Zheng Lu (Tsinghua) convened in Beijing on June 17^th,  2019. A diverse student body from Stanford, Tsinghua, and Peking University meet three times each week for three weeks to do research on major Chinese corporations.

The 18 student participants in the workshop have their majors in social sciences, management, history, and engineering. Each Stanford student is paired with one Chinese-speaking partner to conduct in-depth case study on two major Chinese companies of their selection.

Each group selects two corporations, one state owned or controlled, the other private or of mixed ownership. Teams investigate the company's founding and history of expansion, including any restructuring, privatization, and listing on domestic or international stock exchanges. Of particular interest are the company’s structure of ownership and control, along with its business strategies. The comparison across state and nonstate owned corporations helps to understand the transformation of the country’s economy over the past 30 years and the inner workings of the Chinese model of development.

Selected Chinese corporations in study include: Huawei and Xiaomi (in telecom equipment and electronics); Greenland Holdings and China Vanke (in real estate); Tencent and JD (in social media and e-commerce); China Merchants Group and Cosco (in finance and shipping); Tsingdao Haier and the Midea Group (in appliances).  Course information can be found here.

Image

PKUHSC (Peking University Health Science Center) delegation, headed by Prof. Zhan Qimin, Executive Vice President of Peking University and President of Peking University Health Science Center, visited Stanford on May 9, 2019.

Prof. Oi, director of SCPKU (Stanford Center at Peking University) hosted the event for the delegation joined by interested Stanford faculty and researchers.

SCPKU was founded in 2012 with a landmark building on PKU campus.  Over 1000 programs and events have been convened at SCPKU, Stanford has had 78 projects in 40 different departments with some components involving research or training in China, and 3,187 different Chinese co-authors have collaborated on publications with Stanford authors.

Image

SCPKU has fellows across campus, with the greatest number of faculty from the School of Medicine.  SCPKU will expand Stanford’s role in global education and research and enable all faculty to do research in China.

The PKUHSC delegation presented an overview of PKU Health Science Center, which gave exposure to the Stanford participants for matching their own work with the resources that PKU offered.

Image

A roundtable introduction/discussion followed Prof Oi’s talk between the members of the delegation and Stanford participants.  Both sides were interested in exploring further partnership in global health, life science, public health and emergency medicine.

Image

The delegation had a meeting with Dean of the School of Medicine, Lloyd Minor (5^th from right); Mijiza Sanchez (4^th from right), associate Dean, office of Medical Student Affairs.

The delegation also met with Prof. Mark Cullen (4^th from right), Director, Center for Population Health Sciences, Senior Associate Vice Provost for Research, Professor of Medicine, and discussed medical research and population health sciences.

Both sides agreed that a lot more could be done via the SCPKU platform in further exchange and exploration to formulate meaningful collaboration projects.

Stanford participants:   Jean Oi, director of SCPKU; Ann Hsing, research professor of medicine and a co-leader of the Population Sciences Program; Bruce Ling, professor of surgery; Hua Shan, professor of pathology; Jianghong Rao, professor of radiology; Karen Eggleston, senior fellow at FSI; Mathew Strehlow, professor of emergency medicine; Yang Hu, professor of Ophthalmology and Ying Lu, professor of biomedical data science.   PKU delegation members:  Qimin Zhan, executive vice president and president of Peking University Health Science Center; Weimin Wang, vice president of education; Ning Zhang, vice president of research; Jie Qiao, president, Peking University Third Hospital and director of National Clinical Research Center; Xiaojun Huang, director, institute of hematology; Qiudan Sun, director, office of International Cooperation of Peking University Health Science Center.