On Aug 4th 2014, an afternoon with a light rain, Swiss Embassy in Beijing organized a presentation for 30 students who come from different universities all over China. These students have been selected to participate in a summer school on "Social Responsibility”. This summer school, which is called College Student Corporate Social Responsibility Summer Camp, was held by the Center for International Business Ethic (CIBE) of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing.
Mr. Nektarios Palaskas, Science and Technology Counsellor and head of Science, Technology and Education Section of the Embassy
The students were hosted at Ambassador’s residence. After a short welcome speech by Mr. Nektarios Palaskas, Science and Technology Counsellor and head of Science, Technology and Education Section of the Embassy, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kinzelbach gave a presentation on: “Sustainable Water Resources Management: From Global to Local Issues.”
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kinzelbach has been Full Professor of Hydromechanics at ETH Zurich since January 1996. His current main interest is sustainable water resources management in arid and semi-arid regions, especially in Africa and China. He is also an expert of the Sino-Swiss Development Cooperation Project: Rehabilitation and Management Strategy for over pumped Aquifers under a Changing Climate, an initiative supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Chinese government. In this presentation, Dr. Wolfgang Kinzelbach indicated the scarcity of underground and ground water resources. Through figures and pictures, he showed students a clear understanding about the serious problem of water resource over pumping in China.
Prof. Kinzelbach’s presentation attracted student’s interest successfully, and every student listened to this speech very carefully and the whole process had a fantastic atmosphere. Although Prof. Kinzelbach had already finished his presentation and the session of Q&A, students were still sitting around and discussing their interested topics with him.
The workshop was not the end of this event; students also enjoyed a coffee break while they continued the discussion on the presentation. They were then shown around the Embassy compound, including the historic exhibition and space exhibition installed to celebrate the National Day on August 1st. The visit to the Embassy was extremely interesting for the students who all left with a sense of attachment to Switzerland.