On his return to the UK, Ian Townend said: “Over the last five years we have established a valuable exchange of knowledge between our two organisations and have started to collaborate on areas of common interest. This has enabled us to better understand many of the issues that are currently important within China and to have detailed discussions of our joint research interests, particularly in areas related to flooding, water resources, climate change and estuarine dynamics.

“This appointment further demonstrates our strengthening ties and I am extremely grateful to Professor Zhang Jianyun, Professor Dou and the staff at NHRI for conferring this honour on me. I very much look forward to continuing our collaboration over the coming years.”

Press release, June 5, 2014