08.08.2019 | This week, ZMT Scientific Director Professor Hildegard Westphal and Professor Dao Viet Ha, Director of the Institute of Oceanography (IO) in Vietnam manifested the two institutes’ long-standing collaboration by signing an new Memorandum of Understanding.
During her two-day visit Professor Ha, a member of the renowned Vietnamese Academy of Sciences (VAST), was hosted by Professor Westphal and Dr. Andreas Kunzmann, who together with Dr. Tim Jennerjahn has been one of the longest research partners of IO.
Professor Ha talked with a number of senior scientists and early career researchers at ZMT – namely Dr. Marleen Stuhr, Dr. Anna Fricke, Dr. Mirta Teichberg, Dr. Astrid Gärdes – as well as representatives of the Scientific Diving Centre, Dr. Michael Schmid and Uli Pint.
Aside from further developing current collaborative research projects SeaGrape and TroMaCos and planning research dive excursions for these projects, the parties have also joined forces to apply for funding in both Germany and Vietnam for future research in the field of bio economy.
For Professor Ha it was the first visit to ZMT in her role as IO Director, which she took up in May this year. She addressed members of ZMT staff during an informal gathering expressing her wish to continue and intensify the good relations between the two research institutions which started more than 20 years ago with the signing of the first MoU in 1998.
Since then the IO, based in the coastal city of Nha Trang (South of Vietnam), and ZMT have embarked on a regular exchange of scientists and students. As part of their collaboration, ZMT organised a course in basic diving for IO scientists in Nha Trang (2005) followed by a summer school a year later.
As recently as 2017, ZMT took part in several conferences such as Bien Dong in NhaTrang, which takes place every four years and the WESTPAC conference of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) which was hosted by the IO in 2014.
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