Faculty Explore Collaborative Possibilities

Chancellor Marty Meehan welcomes Prof. Qingling Feng and Assoc. Prof. Guosheng Gai from Beijing.

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In July, UML professors from all scientific disciplines gathered to meet Prof. Qingling Feng and Assoc. Prof. Guosheng Gai, who visited from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

The meeting resulted from a memo of understanding to explore areas of institutional collaboration, signed by the University of Massachusetts and Tsinghua University in 2006. Feng and Gai are serving as faculty ambassadors, visiting the various UMass campuses to learn more about the University’s research, facilities and possibilities for future collaboration, especially in the field of nanotechnology.

UML Chancellor Marty Meehan welcomed Feng and Gai to Lowell, expressing his hope to increase international scientific collaboration. After introducing their university and research to seminar participants, Feng and Gai got a whirlwind overview of the work being done at UMass Lowell through presentations, facility tours and meetings.

“This is an opportunity to find areas of joint interest for collaboration,” says Prof. Julie Chen of the Mechanical Engineering Department and co-director of the CHN/NCOE Nanomanufacturing Center. “It’s a chance for us to increase not only scientific collaboration, but economic as well.”

Feng and Gai are both from the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Tsinghua University. Feng teaches a biomaterials course and her research focuses on natural biomaterial structures, mechanisms on biomineralization, bioactive ceramic coatings, antimicrobial ceramics and bone and liver tissue engineering.

Gai’s research focuses on controlling micro features of particles, the macro nature of powder and materials, the processing of minerals used for fillers and environmental protection and the preparation of composite and functional particles with nano structures.