After about 4 years of preparation, on 21 June 2016, the Department of Geological Oceanography (DGO) of College of Ocean and Earth Sciences (COE) was established. A short but grand establishment ceremony was held at the hall of Xiping Building in the Xiang'an Campus of Xiamen University (XMU).
The ceremony was attended by the university leaders, including HAN Jiahuai, vice president of XMU, DAI Minhan, director of Faculty of Earth Science and Technology (FEST), WANG Kejian, dean of COE, and ZHOU Hantao, director of the Science Technology Department of XMU, invited scientist delegates from the Mainland and Taiwan universities, including Prof. XU Jingping (China Ocean University), Prof. YANG Shouye (Tongji University), Prof. ZHANG Weiguo (East China Normal University), Prof. HUANG Chi-Yue (Taiwan), Prof. SHEU David Der-Duen (Taiwan) and LIU James Tsu-Chien, president of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the brand-new department, as well as COE faculties and students. Mr. QIU Qixing, the party secretary of the COE, hosted the elaborate ceremony. HAN Jiahuai, the vice president of Xiamen University, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, considered that XMU has been developing towards the expectation of Mr. TAN Kah Kee, the founding father of Xiamen University: When foreign vessels arrive in Xiamen Harbor they see a magnificent Chinese university. The ocean has become a special bonding between XMU and the world: in 1923, the research on Marine Biology begins, and 70 years ago, XMU established the first Department of Oceanography of China. During the past century, researches in Marine Biology and Marine Chemistry have always stayed at the leading position in China. Today, we are at the stage when a Department of Geological Oceanography has become an urgent necessity the XMU Ocean Science. The Geological Oceanography will become one of the mainstay disciplines, and will be a great significance to the overall improvement of the Ocean Sciences.
Prof. DAI Minhan, the FEST director, appreciated the two grand events related to the Ocean Science of XMU: the university launched its very own new research vessel the Tan Kah Kee on May 8, and the launching of the new department today. He is confident about a brighter future of the Ocean Sciences of XMU.
The COE dean, Prof. WANG Kejian, was deeply grateful for XMU's support for this new department to make it happen: turning the new department from an idea into the reality. At present, this department has 8 full-time faculty members, including four experienced senior members, two foreign scientists from Germany and India, respectively, and two newly-recruited young Chinese scientists.
Prof. LIU James Tsu-Chien, the IAC chair of DGO, felt very proud as a father experienced the birth of his child. Prof. Liu has acted as the IAC chair since 2013. Within 3 years, he has organized 3 IAC meetings top scientists in marine scientific research field as the IAC members. These IAC meetings gradually formed DGO's development concept, department scale, research orientations and structure.
Dr. YU Fengling, representative of the DGO faculty members, expressed her confidence of this new department by citing the famous saying “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth”.
The ceremony was then followed by a series of seminars given by invited scientist delegates in the morning and a forum between the invited scientists and DGO faculties in the afternoon.
By adapting the internationalization concept into both research and teaching systems, this new department welcomes excellent talents and researchers nationally and internationally. The establishment of DGO will definitely improve the research level of Ocean Science in XMU towards the development of a first-class university.