“Water, Energy and Food” Workshop hosted by CAU-NMSU Water Science and Engineering Joint Research Center was held at New Mexico State University on July 23. Academician and director of the Center for Agricultural Water Research in China (CAWR) Shaozhong Kang, Associate Dean and academic secretary of CAWR Taisheng Du, Associate Prof. Xinmei Hao and Dr. Risheng Ding from CAWR attended the workshop. During the workshop, Academician and Director Kang gave an introduction of CAWR, and also talked about its major achievements in recent years and research interests CAWR will focus on in the future, while Professor and director of the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute Sam Fernald introduced the background of the Institute, its major achievements, and potential collaboration areas between CAWR and the Institute. Prof. Du Taisheng, Associate Prof. Xinmei Hao, and Dr. Ding gave presentations titled “Deficit irrigation for improving fruit quality and water use efficiency to ensure food security”,“Spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture in an irrigated vineyard”,”Measurement and modeling of crop evapotranspiration in an arid inland region”respectively. Research staff from the Institute and professors from College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and College of Engineering of New Mexico State University Bernd Leinauer、Wiebke Boeing、Tanner Schaub、James King、John Idowu、Sam Fernald、KC Carroll、Salim Bawazir、LambisPapelis、Catie Brewer、Manoj Shukla、Ken Peterson、Erek Fuchs、Dave Dubois presented their research work, projects, progresses, achievements and discussed potential collaborations related to water issues from different perspectives of agriculture, ecology and engineering. Participants of the workshop also had in-depth discussions on topics and fronts associated with ensuring global water, food and energy securities.

　　During the visit, two sides from CAU and NMSU held a series of in-depth discussions on the collaboration contents and format regarding the recently launched NMSU-CAU Water Science and Engineering Joint Research Center, exchanged ideas on how to proceed with next step substantial collaborations, and discussed the list of the potential collaborators between the two universities. Participants from both sides agreed that jointly conducting international cooperation projects, jointly carrying out experimental research, joint graduate student and young scientists programs, co-authoring research articles and co-organizing international workshops will be the activities that the Joint Research Center should push forward. They had further discussions on academic exchange, summer school, student training, and agreed upon the specific collaboration activities in the near future. A workshop titled “Water and Energy Innovation for Food Security and Environment Sustainability”will be held in June, 2016 in China, and the workshop will invite professors of related fields from NMSU to present; Professors and research staff from CAWR will visit NMSU for academic exchange in the near future; Two sides will jointly organize summer school in 2016 for graduate students on “Agricultural Hydrology and Water Productivity Modeling under Changing Environments”; NMSU will host CAWR graduate students for academic exchange. In addition, two sides held in-depth discussions on due-degree program in the field of Water Science and Water Resources Management, and agreed tentatively on curriculum and English requirement.      

　　NMSU attached great importance to the CAWR delegate visit. NMSU Executive Vice President and Provost Daniel J. Howard, on behalf of NMSU, welcome the CAWR delegates and held talks on how to carry out all-around collaborations between two universities. Vice President for Research Vimal Chaitanya, Associate Provost for International and Border Programs Cornell Menking, Dean of College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences Dave Thompson, Director of New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute Sam Fernald, and Head of Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences Rolston St. Hilaire held talks on specifics of the collaboration with the delegates.