International Exchange and Cooperation Platform

International Joint Laboratory of Tea Chemistry and Health Effects was approved by Ministry of Education of China in 2016, and was co-supported by the Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, Colorado State University, and Marshall University in the United States. The joint laboratory has played an important role in academic exchanges and cooperation, and talent training. At present, the cooperation projects on tea aroma formation and tea health effects are progressing smoothly, and more than 20 papers have been published jointly. In 2019, Tea Tree Biology and Quality Chemistry team won the National Innovation and Intelligence Base (111 Intelligence Base) for international cooperation.

Outstanding Achievements for International Cooperation

The laboratory has recruited five joint-professors (chair professors), and seven foreign visiting professors, and a high-talent team of "Tea Plant Molecular Genetics and Evolutionary Genomics" led by Professor Jeffrey, who is a member of the American Academy of Sciences. There are eight papers have been published in cooperation with the laboratory. And the team has passed the university mid-term assessment. In addition, two high-cited papers have been published in cooperation with Professor Schwab of the Technical University of Munich, Germany.

Currently, there are more than 209 papers have been published in cooperation with foreign research institutions, which accounted for 34.04% of total published papers. There are 25 cooperative countries, including the United States, Finland, Germany, South Korea, Brazil and Canada.

Organizing International Academic Conferences

The laboratory successfully organized and hosted The First International Conference on Cocoa, Coffee and Tea (Asia) at Hefei in October, 2018. A total of 530 representatives attended the conference, And 41 experts and scholars came from 20 foreign countries, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. A total of 489 faculty and students from 60 Chinese Universities, research institute and tea industries presented the conference. This conference invited six famous keynote speakers, and conducted a total of 88 oral presentations. The conference keynote speakers included Professor C.S. Yang from Rutgers University, US, Professor Kakuda Takami from Fukuoka University, Japan, Professor Manuel A. Coimbra, University of Aveiro, Portugal, Professor Vincenzo Fogliano, Wageningen University, Netherlands, Academician Zong-Mao Chen from Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Professor Xiao-Chun Wan, Director of the Laboratory. During the conference, the state key laboratory also invited representatives from nine tea-producing countries along the “Belt and Road”, including Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, Thailand, and Bangladesh to hold scientific and technological cooperation forums on scientific and technological cooperation. The Laboratory signed a scientific and technological cooperation agreement with Russia's Flower and Subtropical Crops Research Institute and Azerbaijan's Caspian University, and also signed an agreement to build a joint laboratory for tea germplasm resources and biology with Assam Agricultural University of India.

The key laboratory together with American Chemical Society jointly hosted the Tea Chemistry, Flavor and Health Function Symposium (referred to as the Tea Branch) in the 256th annual meeting of American Chemical Society in the Boston of United States from August 19th to 23rd, 2018. This is only one academic symposium focus on a single crop under the American Chemical Society, Agricultural and Food Chemistry Branch (ACS-AGFD). The tea branch was initiated by Professor Chi-Tang Ho from Rutgers University, Professor Xiao-Chun Wan, Professor Zheng-Zhu Zhang and Dr. Da-Xiang Li from our key laboratory, and Dr. Yu Wang from the University of Florida. Tea Chemistry, Flavor and Health Function Symposium was co-organized with the State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Rutgers University and the University of Florida. Professor Chi-Tang Ho saved as chairman of tea branch. He is also a chair professor of International Joint Laboratory of Tea Chemistry and Health Effects. He is a top expert in the field of international food flavor chemistry and a highly cited scientist in the field of global agriculture.