The Faculty of ALES has signed a memorandum of understanding with Seoul National University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, paving the way for increased collaboration between the two.

The MOU calls for the development of a major joint research project, an increase in the exchange of faculty members and graduate students and the co-supervising of graduate students.

Three representatives from SNU – Prof. Hak-Lae Lee, dean of the college, Prof. Jong-Kya Ha, chair of the college’s department of Food and Biotechnology and Prof. Eun-Woo Park, the outgoing dean of the college – were at the U of A to sign the MOU with Provost Carl Amrhein, Dean John Kennelly and AFNS Chair Erasmus Okine.

During their brief two-day visit, the South Korean delegation met with key faculty personnel and visited ALES facilities on the north and south campuses.

“When I saw the (livestock) genomics lab, I saw that there is much to exchange, share and collaborate,” said Dean Lee who added that he and his colleagues were impressed with the open lab system they saw in the Agriculture/Forestry Centre.

“To me, an open lab means more open-minded,” he said.

The MOU, which the college hopes to use as a model for future agreements with other institutions, builds upon the original MOU signed between the University of Alberta and SNU in 2003 and which was renewed last summer.

Early last year, ALES Dean John Kennelly visited SNU and began discussions with Prof. Ha whom, as it turns out, was one of Kennelly’s first post-docs when he was a freshly minted assistant professor in the early 80s.

To get things started, the two decided to hold a scientific exchange. ALES faculty members Leluo Guan, Michael Gaenzle and Ruurd Zijlstra presented their research at SNU in December 2011. Their SNU counterparts will be coming here to present their research programs next June.

Given the success of the scientific exchange and the level of interest expressed by both institutions, the faculty-specific MOU was quickly agreed to.

Seoul National University is generally considered the pre-eminent public university in South Korea. Established in 1946 as the first national university in the country, as of April 2010, it had about 16,000 undergraduate students and 10,600 graduate students across its 16 colleges and 83 departments.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has eight departments offering 17 programs.