On the morning of April 29, an unveiling ceremony of the “Joint Laboratory of Building Materials and Chemistry” of University of Jinan (UJN)- Technical University of Munich(TUM), Germany was held in our school. Vice presidents of UJN, Wang Baoxian and Chen Yuehui, the German director of the joint laboratory, Professor Johann Plank, and his Chinese counterpart Professor Cheng Xin, relevant staff from International Office, Science and Technology Department, and Shandong Key Laboratory of Building Materials Preparation and Testing Technology as well as some other representatives of teachers and students attended the ceremony which was chaired by Mr.Chen Yuehui.

At the unveiling ceremony, Mr.Wang Baoxian extended a warm welcome to Prof. Plank on behalf of UJN, stressed China's current focus on and urgent needs for scientific and technological innovation, international cooperation and talent cultivation and expressed his great expectations for the establishment and development of the joint laboratory. Professor Cheng Xin also warmly welcomed Prof. Plank on behalf of the Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Building Materials Preparation and Testing Technology. He firstly introduced the characteristics of the key laboratory, the foundation for cooperation with TUM, and main research objectives of the joint laboratory, and then showed his confidence and expectations for the cooperation between UJN and TUM. Then, Prof. Plank introduced the history and characteristics of TUM, and spoke highly of the preliminary cooperation between the two universities while expressing his gratitude for the thoughtful arrangement of UJN. After the unveiling ceremony, the two sides conducted in-depth discussion on the specific research plans of the joint laboratory, with the present teachers and students actively participating in the discussion.

Technical University of Munich, one of the first three “elite universities” authorized by the German government, is a world-class university with a history of more than 500 years. Prof. Plank is a well-known expert in the field of interface and surface chemistry. His team is the backbone of UJN's “Innovation and Talent-introduction Plans” (referred to as the “111 Plan”) and has carried out extensive and in-depth cooperation with our university. UJN- TUM Joint Laboratory of Building Materials and Chemistry is designed to realize the intelligentization of traditional building materials by converting road loads into clean electric energy and developing road surface and layer for electricity generation. The combination of both sides’ superior resources will help them break bottlenecks of discipline development, achieve cross-disciplinary integration and high-level scientific research results, as well as make important contributions to innovation in the field of international building materials and chemistry.