Distinguished UB Graduate is China's New Education Minister

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Zhou Ji, a distinguished researcher and scholar who received master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named minister of education of the People's Republic of China.

The appointment was announced last month during the tenth National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, at which 3,000 deputies of the NPC elected China's new leadership under President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jinbao.

In his new position, Zhou will oversee the largest system of education in the world. It serves more than 250 million students in the primary and secondary levels, and more than 13 million students in higher education -- a number that is growing rapidly. China educates 25 percent of the world's students on one percent of the world's education budget.

As minister of education, he will serve as a member of the State Council, or cabinet, of the People's Republic of China, the highest executive organ of state power and administration in the country. The council reports to the premier and comprises four vice premiers, five state councilors, one secretary general, and 28 highly educated ministers.

In 1999, Zhou, who received his UB master's degree in 1981 and his doctorate three years later, was presented a Distinguished Alumni Award by the UB Alumni Association for contributing his knowledge, talent and creativity to higher education in China. At the time, he was president of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, one of China's top universities.

UB President William R. Greiner said the university "is delighted that one of our distinguished alumni has been appointed to such a prominent and influential position in the Chinese government, with responsibility for the world's largest educational system.

"Dr. Zhou's appointment," he added, "is a very meaningful one for our entire UB community, especially for his mentors and colleagues at UB, including SUNY Distinguished Professor Roger Mayne, his doctoral advisor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace

Engineering. We are all immensely proud of Dr. Zhou, and we are very pleased to see him receiving such well-earned recognition."

Stephen C. Dunnett, UB vice provost for international education, noted that Zhou "is one of a great many outstanding Chinese students who have completed advanced degrees at UB and gone on to highly successful careers back home.

"It is a tribute to UB's early and extensive involvement in China, beginning in the late 1970s, that UB has attracted so many excellent students from that country," Dunnett noted. "Few U.S. institutions can boast as many graduates in China, now rising to prominent positions of authority and responsibility."

A distinguished researcher and prolific scholar, Zhou was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. He is the former mayor of Wuhan, a major industrial city in Southern China and had served since last August as China's vice minister of education.

One of Zhou's priorities as vice minister was to support overseas study for Chinese students, while simultaneously encouraging more of them to return home. According to Ministry of Education statistics, the number of Chinese who studied abroad between 1978 and the end of 2002 exceeded 580,000, of whom more than 150,000 have returned home.