US educator building global medical program in Tianjin

Growing up in the US in the 1970s, Jay Siegel never thought of visiting China, much less the idea of building an international science program there, which is exactly what he has been doing at Tianjin University for the past six years. It was the vision of an international program that he shared with Li Jiajun, then-president of Tianjin University, eight years ago that prompted him to explore China. There, Siegel would apply his three decades of experience of working as a researcher and educator at universities in the US and Israel, along with several European countries, to devise a new education model, and help, he said, “augment the opening up and reform in the educational sector.” Since he joined Tianjin University, Siegel has made a series of efforts to build an international standard medical program for the university. Forty years into the implementation of reform and opening-up, China has put more resources into research and producing more research, and, as Siegel said, “The countries around it are benefiting from the research flowing into the community.” The spirit of reform and opening up is by no means limited to the education sector, and nor are the benefits brought by such actions.