Fresno State biology professor Dr. Alejandro Calderón-Urrea was recently presented with the 2018 Dunhuang Award, the Gansu Province government’s highest honor. This month, Dr. Calderón-Urrea received the award at a special ceremony in Lanzhou, the capitol city of Gansu in northwestern China. The Dunhuang Award is given to foreign individuals for their outstanding service and remarkable contributions to the economic, scientific, academic development and educations programs in Gansu Province.
Dr. Calderón-Urrea has visited the Gansu Province nine times since 2014, in close collaboration with Gansu Agricultural University, where he is an adjunct faculty in the college of Plant Protection. He has published 13 scientific publications with his colleagues from GAU and has contributed to the training of many junior faculty, post-doctoral and doctoral students. He also established a program to bring Fresno State students to GAU for two weeks to engage in cultural exchange with their Chinese counterparts. Dr. Calderón-Urrea was the only American honored this year.
University Communications news intern Easton Kerby contributed to this report.
