UToyama’s EVP Ikeda Donates the First TIU-Issued Doctoral Diploma to NTU

Prof. Masayuki Ikeda (池田真行), Executive Vice President of the University of Toyama (UToyama), led a delegation of four international affairs staff members to visit NTU on July 22. This was the first visit Prof. Ikeda paid to NTU after he took office in 2019. While working with NTU to advance bilateral cooperation, Executive Vice President Ikeda also presented a historically significant gift to NTU—the first doctoral diploma with a serial number of one issued by Taihoku Imperial University (TIU), predecessor of NTU, to his grandfather-in-law.

The delegation was warmly received by NTU’s Executive Vice President Ming-Syan Chen (陳銘憲), Librarian Kuang-Hua Chen (陳光華), Vice President for International Affairs Bi-Fong Lin (林璧鳳), and Department of Agricultural Economics Prof. Shih-Hsun Hsu (徐世勳).

The meeting was opened by NTU Executive Vice President Chen, who welcomed the UToyama delegation and deemed the precious gift a token of friendship between the two schools. During the meeting, Executive Vice President Ikeda mentioned that UToyama’s Faculty of Engineering has engaged in years of collaboration with NTU’s Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center since he became a member of the faculty. In recent years, more academic collaborative projects have been underway between UToyama and NTU’s Department of Agricultural Economics. Although the two schools are not partner universities yet, they have built a solid foundation for cooperation and shared similar research fields in science and literature. As a result, the visit was aimed to increase bilateral exchanges and strengthen the bond between the two schools.

Besides discussing possible future collaborations, Executive Vice President Ikeda took the opportunity to donate the doctoral diploma his grandfather-in-law had received in 1938 when studying at TIU in Taipei. Prof. Ikeda’s grandfather-in-law completed his higher education at TIU and was strongly connected to NTU and Taiwan, which made this donation even more meaningful. The gift was also the first doctoral diploma NTU had issued since establishment. Executive Vice President Chen received the gift on behalf of NTU and presented a certificate of appreciation to Executive Vice President Ikeda. NTU Library also prepared the first PhD graduate’s student record and transcript as a present in return. After the meeting, the delegation toured the Gallery of NTU History and learned more about the University’s architecture and history.

The delegation also sought to strengthen its connection with departments and research institutes at NTU. The delegation members met the NTU Department of Life Science’s Profs. Chen-Tung Yen (嚴震東) and Ming-Yi Chou (周銘翊), as well as School of Veterinary Medicine’s Prof. Fang-Chia Chang (張芳嘉). Since 2008, both parties have started to select and send their students to participate in summer camps held by NTU’s Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center. The Center’s Director Wen-Sung Lai (賴文崧) had invited Executive Vice President Ikeda and related faculty members to visit NTU this year to facilitate stable and long-term academic collaborations between the two universities and their faculty members. While meeting with Chairperson Pei-Ing Wu (吳珮瑛) and Prof. Shih-Hsun Hsu of NTU’s Department of Agricultural Economics, the delegation expressed hopes to develop more student exchange opportunities with the Department. Chairperson Wu proposed first organizing student activities to facilitate more exchange and then encourage UToyama students to pursue short-term studies at NTU.