White House visit
Two UD faculty members attend White House event for Chinese president
2:04 p.m., Sept. 28, 2015--Two University of Delaware faculty members attended the ceremony and reception hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday, Sept. 25, to welcome visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xiao-Hai Yan, Mary A.S. Lighthipe Professor of Oceanography and Xiang-Gen Xia, Charles Black Evans Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, were on hand for the international event.
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During the reception, both Xia and Yan had opportunities to greet and shake hands with Obama and Xi, and to take many photographs of the presidents addressing the crowd and greeting guests.
This was Xi’s first visit to the U.S. in this role, reciprocating Obama’s visit to China in November 2014.
Among the critical issues addressed during this most recent visit included global agreements on climate change, cyber security, and economic relations.
During the visit, the U.S. and China issued a joined presidential statement on climate change with new domestic policy commitments and a common vision for an ambitious global climate agreement.
This was Yan’s third such attendance at a welcome for a Chinese president, and a first for Xia.
Yan, a professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, is also the director of UD’s Center for Remote Sensing. He has been instrumental in forging academic and research ties with Xiamen University, UD's partner in the Joint Institute for Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, and in UD’s Confucius Institute. Yan holds an honorary distinguished scholar title at Xiamen University.
A professor in the College of Engineering, Xia’s areas of expertise areas are signal processing and communications, such as cellular and Wi-Fi systems. He has had research collaborations with many Chinese universities including Xidian University, Tsinghua University and Southeast University.
Photos courtesy of Xiao-Hai Yan and Xiang-Gen Xia