Guest Professor of the College Awarded Chinese Government Friendship Award!

On September 30, Ceremony of the Chinese Government Friendship Award 2024 was held at the Great Hall of the People, where State Councilor Yiqin Chen presented awards to the foreign experts. Academician Carlos Guedes Soares, a guest professor from the College of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, was honored with this award, becoming the third foreign expert from the university to receive the Chinese Government Friendship Award.

Zhiwen Yu, member of the Standing Committee of Party Committee, Vice President, accompanied Professor Carlos to the award ceremony.

The Chinese Government Friendship Award

The Chinese Government Friendship Award is the highest honor established by the Chinese government to recognize foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China's modernization and reform and opening-up endeavors. In 2024, a total of 100 foreign experts were bestowed with this honor.

Previously, two foreign experts from Harbin Engineering University had received the Chinese Government Friendship Award. William C. Webster, an academician of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and specially-appointed professor Y. Okamoto.

Carlos Guedes Soares, an academician of the Portuguese Academy of Engineering, Distinguished Professor at the University of Lisbon, Guest Professor at Harbin Engineering University, Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), and Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST). In 2022, Professor Carlos ranked first in the field of civil engineering according to Stanford University's ranking of global scientists. He has served as the Chairman of the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC), the highest academic organization in the international field of ship and ocean engineering, and is currently the President of the European Association of Maritime Universities.

Over the past 20 years, Professor Carlos has been dedicated to promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and the international maritime academic community, leading the establishment of the Sino-Portuguese Ministry of Education Joint Laboratory for Cooperation in Ship and Ocean Engineering Technology, which has facilitated educational and scientific exchanges between China and Portugal, as well as between China and Europe. The joint laboratory has received significant attention from the Chinese and Portuguese embassies, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal. Professor Carlos has trained over 90 doctoral and postdoctoral students for China, most of them have become key figures in China's maritime universities and research institutions.

Harbin Engineering University thoroughly implements the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, earnestly studies and implements the important speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the national education conference and his important speech during the inspection of the school, deeply carries out the "five adherences, five focuses" principle of running schools, continuously implements the globalization development strategy plan, actively expands global partnerships, and strives to create a new situation of high-quality development for a world-class university with distinctive features.