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Asia tour introduces IME to India, China, Hong Kong

Pritzker Director Matthew Tirrell presented a series of lectures in February to students and faculty members at universities and technical institutes in India, China, and to UChicago alumni in those nations.

Tirrell gave five Harper Lectures, one each in Mumbai, Banglore, Dehli, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Titled "Molecular Engineering and Innovation," the lectures introduced the Institute for Molecular Engineering to UChicago’s alumni in Asia. The UChicago Alumni Association offers the Harper Lecture Series to the university community across the country and around the world. The series is named for the University’s first president, William Rainey Harper.

Tirrell also delivered technical talks, one each at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, the Indian Institute of Technology in Dehli, the Institute for Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, and the newly founded Shanghai Tech University. His topic was "Protein Analogous Micelles: Versatile, Modular Nanoparticles."

He also visited the Nehru Centre for Materials Research in Banglore.

During his visit to China, Tirrell met with Shanghai Tech University President Jiang Mianheng.

"I think there are some ways that we could cooperate," Tirrell said. Shanghai Tech is building a highly interdisciplinary enterprise that encompasses the life sciences, physical sciences, information sciences, and entrepreneurship and management. "As we develop the most highly interdisciplinary engineering program in the world, I’m thinking about how PME could be a partner with Shanghai Tech but pull all those things together, with each getting in on the ground floor of the other."