Peking-Yale Joint Center for Plant Molecular Genetics and Agro-biotechnology, a joint research institution between China and the United States, was unveiled in Peking University Monday.

According to Richard C. Levin, President of Yale, the long-term goal of the center is to support a multidisciplinary research program in plant biology in which independent research groups will work within a common facility, sharing resources and expertise.

Research at the center will be initially concentrated in the field of basic biology in model plant system "Arabidopsis" and on the application of this basic research to crop improvement, an area of great interest and importance both to China and the United States.

Peking University and Yale University will work together through the center to facilitate direct collaborations between research groups in plant genomics based at each university. They will also endeavor to enable the periodic exchange of students and researchers between research groups at the two institutions. Each year, the center will sponsor a lecture series in Beijing, covering important new developments in plant biology.

In addition, Yale University will announce the creation of the China Law Center, a collaboration of the Yale Law School, several Chinese law schools and institutes, the State Council Office of Legislative Affairs, and the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The new center has formed project teams consisting of leading legal scholars, judges, other government officials and practicing lawyers from both countries. Together, they will address the issues of judicial reform, administrative law and legal education.

The Yale president said that in all, Yale has more than twenty active collaborations with Chinese universities, health care organizations and government agencies.

(People's Daily 05/07/2001)