Professional Exchange

Chen Zhijian – at the time Section Chief of Environmental Health Division in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health with the Zhejiang Provincial China CDC, and a research fellow at the NCRWSTG and China CDC – came to Berkeley as a visiting scholar for a period of six months, from late 2018 through most of the UCB Spring semester. During this time, Dr. Chen participated in Professor Ray and Colford’s regular lab meetings, met with faculty and students to discuss various research projects, and audited a number of graduate-level courses.

2017 Fall: Luo Quing came to Berkeley as a Visiting Researcher

Luo Qing, a research fellow at the NCRWSTG and China CDC, was at Berkeley as a visiting researcher for the Fall, 2017 semester. While at Berkeley, Luo Qing attended regular meetings with Professor Isha Ray and Professor Jack Colford’s lab groups, audited multiple courses, and worked on her PhD studies and research plans.

2017 Spring: Dr. Li Hongxing came to Berkeley as a Visiting Scholar

Dr. Li Hongxing was granted a professional sabbatical from the NCRWSTG to come to UC Berkeley as a visiting scholar for the Spring, 2017 semester. While at Berkeley, Dr. Li attended regular meetings with Professor Isha Ray and Professor Jack Colford’s lab groups, audited a variety of courses covering topics such as Environmental Health, Drinking Water Quality, and Social Epidemiology. While at Berkeley Dr. Li also met regularly with faculty, researchers, and students associated with the Berkeley/China-CDC Program for Water and Health in order to discuss ongoing research projects and analyses and to help design a new project focused on small-scale utilities in rural China and intermittent water supply (see Projects Page for more information).

Professional Exchanges

2018 – Berkeley and China CDC Colleagues Travel to Hubei and Anhui Provinces for Meetings and Field Sites Visits

Following a seminar and meetings in Beijing, the UCB team – Professors Isha Ray and Jack Colford, as well as Dr. Alasdair Cohen, Dr. Jade Benjamin-Chung, Yoshika Crider, and Seigi Karasaki – traveled with NCRWSTG Director Tao Yong, Zhang Qi, Li Hongxing, Zhao Liang, and others to Hebei Province to meet with China CDC officials there. Hebei Province was one of the two provinces NCRWSTG selected for their initial research on IWS in China.

In Hubei, the group participated in a workshop hosted by the local China CDC, and also met with utility managers at a number of drinking water treatment plants, as well as staff at health clinics and a township hospital.

Following these productive meetings and visits, the team travelled together to Anhui province to meet with provincial and local level China CDC officials and staff who were helping to manage the Electric Kettle study (see Projects Page for more information).

In addition to reviewing data collection efforts up to that point and discussing logistics and other plans for the project, the team had the opportunity to visit a few villages in the region and meet with village doctors and others.

2016- Berkeley Team Travels to Beijing & Guangxi Province for Week of Meetings and Visits to the Field Sites

In March of 2016, Isha Ray, Jack Colford, Alasdair Cohen, and Ayse Ercumen travelled from Berkeley to China for series of meetings and a conference in Beijing (in Chinese) followed by a trip to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangxi Province), in the country’s south to meet with local officials and visit rural field sites.

Shortly after arriving in Beijing, the Berkeley team met with officials, researchers, and other staff at the NCRWSTG headquarters in Changping District, just north of Beijing. Director Tao also organized meetings at the China CDC’s new national headquarters where the team met with officials from other China CDC agencies also focused on environmental health research and programming.

The Berkeley team also had the pleasure of meeting with the Guangxi Province China CDC Director as well as Zhong Gemei, Director of the Institute of Environmental Health and Endemic Disease Control, and her team – many of whom had generously given their time to support the 2013-2014 research project in rural Guangxi.

Following the NCRWSTG hosted conference (see links), the team travelled to Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Province where they met with a delegation of Public Health professors and researchers at the Guangxi Medical University.

The Berkeley team also had the pleasure of meeting with the Guangxi Province China CDC Director as well as Zhong Gemei, Director of the Institute of Environmental Health and Endemic Disease Control, and her team – many of whom had generously given their time to support the 2013-2014 research project in rural Guangxi.

Following these meetings, the Berkeley team traveled to one of the rural counties where the 2013-2014 research project was conducted. The county China CDC director and his staff graciously hosted the Berkeley delegation for two days and accompanied them on field site visits to a number of rural communities, including a boarding school and small-scale drinking water treatment plant.