Beijing site of K-State Night with the College of Veterinary Medicine
Monday, April 7, 2014
MANHATTAN — Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine recently was part of a special K-State Night in Beijing, where two former Wildcats — or "banmao" in Chinese — were honored.
Defa Li and Hua Wu performed their doctoral and postdoctoral studies at the university in the 1990s.
The college's China delegation was made up of Jishu Shi, director of the university's U.S.-China Center for Animal Health; Lei Wang, manager of the U.S.-China Animal Health Center; Ralph C. Richardson, dean of the college; Ronnie Elmore, associate dean for academic programs, admissions and diversity programs; and Frank Blecha, associate dean for research. Both Li and Wu studied under Blecha in his university research laboratory.
Blecha presented a congratulatory certificate from Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz to Li, who was just elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering, which is comparable to the National Academies of Science in the U.S. Li earned his doctorate in animal sciences and industry from the university in 1991. He is now a professor of animal nutrition and nutritional evaluation of feed and dean of the College of Animal Science and Technology at China Agricultural University. He is also the chairman of the Scientific Committee of the State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and director of the Research Committee of Chinese nutritional value of feed and animal husbandry standards.
Richardson recognized Wu with a certificate from President Schulz for being elected as a member of the Chinese Global Experts Program, or "1000 Plan." He was at Kansas State University from 1995 to 2000 and is now a professor with the Institute of Special Economic Animal and Plant Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
"Both of these alumni have made outstanding academic achievements during their careers in order to receive such distinguished honors from these Chinese organizations," Richardson said. "They are both at top of their respective professions, and we are very proud they are K-State alumni. We look forward to seeing what they will accomplish in the future."
The trip to China included other activities as part of an academic partnership in veterinary medical education. The team conducted interviews with about a dozen Chinese students who are candidates for pre-veterinary studies at Kansas State University. From this group, as many as eight students will be accepted, with an announcement expected in May. After successful completion of pre-veterinary studies, the students can then apply for admission into the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at the university or at one of these partnering veterinary colleges: University of California, Davis; Iowa State University; University of Minnesota; University of Missouri; and Oklahoma State University.
Kansas State University's partnership with China also involves the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the China Scholarship Council, the latter of which provides scholarship funding for the Chinese students to study veterinary medicine in the U.S.
