University of Tehran delegation visited ETH, Switzerland

On 15 September, 2017, Professor Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, President of University of Tehran visited ETH Zurich and met with Professor Dr. Lino Cuzzella, the President of ETH. In this visit, President Nili Ahmadabadi was accompanied by Prof. Mohammad Bagher Ghahramani, Vice President for International Affairs.

In the first step, the delegation visited the Science City of ETH, where the delegation was presented with a report on the structure of ETH and the functions of Science City which is a project aimed at incorporating university activities with the functions of society. The delegation talked with the Head of the department of Materials and Chair of the Laboratory for Nanometallurgy and visited several of the labs there. The two sides discussed mutual cooperation in research and student collaboration.

One significant step in the visit was the meeting of Professor Dr. Lino Cuzzella, the ETH President, and Professor Nili Ahmadabadi who conferred about the expansion of bilateral scientific cooperation between the two universities. Dr. Nili explained about the main points of the five-year plan of UT and its emphasis on international cooperation based on ethics and social responsibility. The two sides emphasized on the exchange of students and agreed that since UT each year sends students for research abroad that the two universities would work together to help students from University of Tehran to find appropriate supervisors and to help find lodging and provide matching funds for extra support. The two presidents agreed to start with a list of six students that would be announced by UT. Dr. Nili also promised to help ETH students find rooms at the dormitories when they come to UT.

The two presidents also discussed support for UT junior faculty members to gain international experience. Concerning the joint research programs, ETH announced that it will have a call for proposal in the near future and the faculty members and students can apply for that in due time.

Also, UT President invited the faculty members of ETH to attend UT for joint research, lectures or hold workshops that was welcomed by Dr. Cuzzella who added that their faculty members are obliged to work internationally.  Another area which was discussed for cooperation included the collaboration on foreign language programs which are offered at UT that could be supported by visiting scholars from ETH. 

The UT delegation also paid a visit to the Swiss Seismological Service located at ETH. The Chair of Seismology, Professor Dr. Stefan Wiemer, presented a report on the structure and history of the center. It was explained that Center has a national mission very much like University of Tehran’s Institute of Geophysics. Further ties between the two seismological places were discussed and the Head of the Center was invited to visit UT to get more familiar with the scope of activities and for further talks to make an action plan for further cooperation.

In his visit to Switzrland, President Nili Ahmadabadi also met with some of the UT faculty members, graduates and current students who are researching at various institutions there and discussed with them their achievements and challenges.