Nobel Laureate Aaron J. Ciechanover Conferred TJU Honorary Professorship

On October 27, 2013, Nobel laureate Aaron J. Ciechanover was granted an honorary professorship of Tianjin University (TJU). He was accompanied by Professor Rao Zihe, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Director of Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biotechnology & Medicine(TJAB), and Mr. Yang Cheng, Vice President of TJAB . Ms. Zhu Liping, Standing Committee Member of Tianjin Municipal CPC and Secretary of Tianjin Educational Work Committee, met with Professor Ciechanover. She expressed her congratulations on cooperation between Professor Ciechanover and TJU, hoping to see sustained and stable development as well as fruitful results of this cooperation.

The Conferring Ceremony for the Honorary Professorship of Professor Ciechanover was held at the conference building of TJU. President Li Jiajun extended his warm welcome to Professor Ciechanover for his first visit to TJU. He presented an overview of TJU's history and disciplinary strength over the past year, especially, the Co-Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (COIC_CSE) as well as its widespread research areas. He also hoped that further cooperation could be developed between Professor Ciechanover and TJU. Dean Jay Siegel of the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology of TJU also attended the ceremony. He briefed the guest on the great efforts TJU has made in the fields of pharmaceutical science and life sciences. Also, he showed high expectation for continued development in the future. Professor Ciechanover introduced his educational and research experience to TJU colleagues, and hoped to develop substantial cooperation, including student exchange, with TJU. He stated that China had achieved remarkable development in recent years. Additionally, he hoped that the joint efforts of scientists, both inside and outside China, could further improve the quality and level of Chinese research, so as to solve major problems faced by China, as well as the whole world.

President Li conferred the Certificate of TJU Honorary Professorship upon Professor Ciechanover. Also attending the ceremony were representatives from TJU related schools and offices, including the School of Life Sciences, the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, the School of Chemical Engineering, and the Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biotechnology and Medicine.

Born in 1947 in Haifa, Israel, Professor Ciechanover is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and is a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He received his Doctorate in Biochemistry in 1981 from the Technion (the Israel Institute of Technology), in Haifa. From 1981 to 1984, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1992, he was appointed as a Full Professor at the Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. In 2004, he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Professor Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose for their joint discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, becoming one of Israel's first Nobel laureates in Science.