Recently, the “International Cooperation Joint Research Center of Crystallization Science and Engineering” at Tianjin University was recognized as an International Cooperation Joint Research Base by the Ministry of Science and Technology. This is the third national-level International Science and Technology Cooperation Base in Tianjin University that has been approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, following the first two International Cooperation Research Centers of Synthetic Biology and Smart Electricity Distribution.

The International Cooperation Joint Research Center of Crystallization Science and Engineering has been grounded in major scientific research institution and national projects, including China’s only National Industrial Crystallization Engineering Technology Research Center, and the major disciplines of Chemical Engineering and Technology. The Center will focus on the forefront of international science and technology in crystallization engineering, doing basic research and developing innovative technology concerning the major fields of materials, medicine, energy, and environment, and carry out multidimensional international cooperation and innovative personnel training.

As early as in the 1980s, the team at the Center of Crystallization Science and Engineering has cooperated and had academic exchange with Professor Larson from the University of Iowa as one of leading experts in industrial crystallization. In 1999, Tianjin University held the first China International Industrial Crystallization Conference and to date, the Conference has been held on seven occasions.

In 2009 and 2014, two projects by Professor Wang Jingkang, the head of the Center of Crystallization Science and Engineering, won two first prizes in the National Teaching Achievement Award.

Executive Director of the Research Center, Professor Gong Junbo said: “We have established long-term and extensive academic cooperation and exchange with over 10 world-renowned universities and research institutes, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America, the University of Manchester in the UK, the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the University of Rome in Italy. The industrial crystallization science and technology we have mastered and developed has reached an advanced level in the world. The team has been awarded six National Science and Technology Awards including the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and more than 10 first prizes from the Ministerial and Provincial Science and Technology Award.”

Up to 2016, Tianjin University had 24 provincial International Scientific and Technological Cooperation bases.

National “International Cooperation Joint Research Bases” refer to sci-tech parks, research institutes, universities, innovative enterprises and sci-tech intermediary organizations that are recognized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, that have made remarkable achievements in national international cooperation in science and technology, and have the potential for further development and taking a guiding role in the future.