It was a historic moment when a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Princeton University, USA was signed in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor of the UoH, Professor Appa Rao Podile, First Lady of New Jersey, Lady Tammy Snyder Murphy, and officials from New Jersey City University, Rutgers University, Rowan University on 18th of September 2019 on UoH campus.

The signatories were In-charge Registrar Shri. Devesh Nigam of UoH and Dr. Coleen Burrus, Director, Corporate Engagement & Foundation Relations of Princeton University. This MoU of 2 year duration will undertake activities broadly in 3 areas namely:

·         The Parties will explore multi-disciplinary collaborations in Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences, and Computer and Information Sciences.

·         Bi-national university research cooperation and technology and knowledge transfer, including pursuit of research partnerships between Princeton, and UoH and other universities, colleges, and agencies in India, that support such cooperation;

·         Academic and student cooperation, including academic exchange programs that would be in addition to or in collaboration between UoH and Princeton, student conferences, exchange of invitations to scholars for lectures, conferences, colloquia and symposia from Princeton and UoH. 

The Dean of the School of Life Sciences, Prof. S Dayananda welcomed the gathering and emphasized that this MoU with Princeton University, which is among the Top Ten in the world, gives more opportunities for the various Schools in the University.

First lady explained the ecosystem at state of New Jersey and briefed possible collaborations. Later First lady interacted with students of University and explained the opportunites for Post docs and in research at various organizations at state of New Jersey.

The Vice Chancellor appreciated the efforts of the TIE-U office at UoH and Princeton University in formalizing this MoU and hoped that this collaboration will benefit both the Institutions.

Dr. Coleen Burrus, Director, Corporate Engagement & Foundation Relations of Princeton University said, “As a global research university, Princeton seeks to achieve the highest levels of distinction in the discovery and transmission of knowledge and understanding. The University is committed to generating, diffusing and preserving knowledge, and working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the great challenges of the world”.

The delegation later visited the UoH – Bio-incubator Nurturing Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies (BioNest) facility in the School of Life Sciences.