Premier Li Keqiang meets with foreign experts who won the Chinese government Friendship Award in 2020 and 2021 / photo source: Chinese government website
Prof. Gretchen Kalonji, dean of the Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction, Sichuan University, has won the Chinese Government Friendship Award. The award ceremony was held in the Great Hall of the People on September 30. The Chinese Government Friendship Award is the highest award established by the Chinese government to commend foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China's modernization, reform and opening up. Vice Premier Liu He of the State Council personally presented the award to individual award winners at the meeting of Premier Li Keqiang in the Hebei Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Premier Li delivered a speech and took a group photo with the award-winning experts. Afterwards, Dr. Gretchen Kalonji and other award-winning experts took part in the 72nd National Day anniversary reception, and President Xi Jinping attended the reception. Dr. Kalonji is the first foreign expert in our university to win this award.
Dr. Gretchen Kalonji, the second from the left in the front row
Gretchen Kalonji, the first from the right in the front row on the CCTV news broadcast on September 30
Being the highest honor to foreign experts, the Chinese Government Friendship Award was established by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs in 1991. The award ceremony of the "Friendship Award" is held annually on the eve of the National Day.
The Friendship Award
Dr. Gretchen Kalonji has been dean of the Institute of Disaster Management and Reconstruction, SCU since 2016. She was Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO. Additionally, Dr Kalonji has served in various leadership roles in the University of California system, including as Director of International Strategy Development at the UC Office of the President. She served as Kyocera Professor of Materials Science at the University of Washington from 1990 to 2005. Prior to 1990 she was Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.
As an international academic leader, she has continuously carried out close cooperation with China for 22 years and made outstanding contributions to the development of China's scientific research and education. She spearheaded the establishment of the Sichuan-Washington State project on environmental challenges in southwest China and northwest America, focusing on interdisciplinary team research at the undergraduate and doctoral levels to explore the common challenges faced by the two regions. Moreover, when she was the director ofInternational Strategy Development at the UC Office of the President, she first proposed the concept of "10 + 10", a cooperation project with the Ministry of Education that linked 10 of China's most famous universities and 10 California universities. She has carried out a large number of scientific research and educational activities. From 2010 to 2014, she worked at UNESCO and established three UNESCO affiliated research centers in China to promote innovative cooperation in China's higher education system.
The Chinese names begin with family name in this report.
