Hefei University of Technologycelebratedthe opening of its geological museum on the afternoon of July 9. The ceremony was held in the north square of the main teaching building, Tunxilu Campus. Leaders present at the event include Zhao Zhenhua, deputy secretary of Education Working Committee of Anhui Provincial Party Committee and director-general of Anhui Education Department, Xing Guangfu, Party committee member and deputy director of Nanjing Geological Survey Center of China Geological Survey, Li Guoyang, member of the leading Party member’s group and deputy director-general of Anhui Provincial Department of Science and Technology, Shi Shenyi, inspector (grade I) of the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration of Anhui Province, Yu Fengxiang, president of Anhui Paleontological Society, Zhong Yukun, director of science popularization department, Anhui Association for Science and Technology, Lou Jinwei, division director for mineral resources protection and supervision, Anhui Department of Natural Resources, Xia Maolin, curator of Anhui Geological Museum, Yu Qijun, Party secretary of HFUT, University President Liang Liang, and Liu Xiaoping, Liu Zhifeng, Ji Yihong, who are vice presidents and standing committee members of the university at the same time, as well as Vice President Zheng Lei, who presided over the ceremony.
On behalf of the university, President Liang Liang extended his warm welcome to the leaders, guests, teachers and students attending the ceremony, and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the leaders and friends who gave support during the construction of the museum, and to the hard-working museum planning and construction team. The president stressed that as a concentrated demonstration venue of the spiritual and cultural character, the university museum is also an important part of the university culture construction, and it should play the role of student cultivation, scientific research, social service, cultural inheritance, and innovation. As an important platform for educating people, the museum will surely become a “main front” in the campus culture construction, a new window of the university for exchanges with foreign counterparts, a frequently visited place for social science popularization and a new landmark favored by teachers and students. The university will take the opening of the museum as a good opportunity to further expand exchanges and cooperation with foreign counterparts, deeply tap the potential of the museum in student education, strengthen targeted management, open wider its door to more people, and continue collecting exhibits and upgrading the exhibition.
Zhao Zhenhua, on behalf of the Education Working Committee of Anhui Provincial Party Committee and Anhui Education Department, delivered a warm speech at the ceremony, congratulating the opening of the geological museum in the main teaching building, a landmark of the campus. He praised that the geological museum, so far the one and only school-run geo-museum in Anhui, is a concentrated manifestation of the profound historical heritage of the university and a tangible showcase of the spirit of the university in “serving the country with industry”. He said he believes the museum will serve as a new image of the university and even the whole of Anhui higher education. In his congratulatory remarks, he also expressed his hope that Hefei University of Technology will give full play to the important role of the museum in student training, scientific research, social service, cultural inheritance and innovation, and the museum will carry out more scientific researches and arrange activities to popularize scientific knowledge for teachers, students, the public and domestic universities, constantly enrich its collection, deeply explore the connotation of geological discipline, strengthen the popular science education on earth science, encourage teachers, students and staff members to sincerely practice the new concept of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, assist the university in building itself into an internationally renowned research-oriented high-level university and in building a number of world-class disciplines, and jointly make greater contributions to the building of Anhui into a more modern and beautiful province in the future with better environment. In conclusion, Zhao Zhenhua expressed his wish that this geological museum could have its own features, be upgraded continously in its development, and give full play to the profound historical heritage, excellent school-running tradition, and distinctive talent training characteristics of the university.
On behalf of Nanjing Geological Survey Centre, Xing Guangfu congratulated the opening of the museum and highly evaluated the rich variety of specimens in it. He said he hopes that the opening ceremony of the museum will serve as a new starting point to further cooperation between the survey center and the university, in which, the center can provide support for the collection and upgrading of the specimens of the museum. He also hopes that the upcoming cooperation can provide continuous, endogenous power for the two sides to activate collaboration in museum cultural resources, in exploring how the geological museum could better educate students, and in the first-class discipline construction and top-notch talent cultivation. Xing also wished that the two sides would give full play to their advantages and broaden cooperation in areas such as the joint development of urban geological resources and underground space exploration projects, the integrated management of natural resources and ecological civilization construction, so as to better serve the development of mineral resources and national ecological civilization, as well as national economic and social development.
After jointly pressing down the start button, the participating leaders had an inspection tour to the exhibits in the museum.
HFUT Geological Museum started its construction in April 2020. The venue is in the halls on the second, third and fourth floors of the main teaching building. With physical objects, photos, texts, and displayed scenes, it systematically shows geological changes, resource agglomeration, stories of ores, mining attractiveness and some popular scientific knowledge. In the museum, you will not only appreciate the uncanny workmanship and wonders of nature but also comprehend the extensive and profound geological culture and the aspiration and spirit of geologists in their work.
