Formal agreement with USM builds on longstanding collaboration
4 June 2018
On 30th April 2018, Cardiff University signed a formal agreement with the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang. This agreement comes after a long-standing research collaboration between the Cardiff University School of Engineering and the Malaysian university.
The original collaboration which brought about this link was between Professor Roger Falconer, then leader of the Hydro-environmental Research Centre at Cardiff University, and research colleagues at the School of Mathematics and the School of Biosciences at USM, and since 2002, with the River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC).
Under the leadership of Professor Azazi, Director of the Engineering Campus at USM, and Professor Falconer, REDAC and the Hydroenvironmental Research Centre have become recognised global centres of excellence for water engineering. The Vice-Chancellors of both universities are keen to see these relationships now develop and prosper across a wide range of disciplines.
Professor Falconer said: “I have had long-standing links with USM since the late 1980s and I am delighted to see this formal agreement which recognises the strong desire of my colleagues at USM and Cardiff University to develop and extend our collaboration. Professor Azazi and colleagues in the school of Engineering are already collaborating on new joint research proposals, which will help the exchange of researchers across the two institutions.”
International Dean for the College of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Professor Steve Bentley, who signed the Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of Cardiff University, said: “I am delighted that the Vice-Chancellor of USM, Professor Datak Asma Ismail, and I are formally signing this Memorandum of Understanding between our two institutions. Given the strong links already created it makes sense to develop our research collaboration in engineering, however both institutions want to see this grow and broaden to other research areas across the two universities.”
Dr Bentley acknowledged the support of both Vice-Chancellors and said: “The two universities share many common interests and I am sure that this formal recognition which is built on such strong foundations will make future collaboration a resounding success.”