TIMES Hosts a Special Visit from President Qi Dong of Beijing Normal University
TIMES was honored to host a visit from President Qi Dong of Beijing Normal University earlier this week during a tour of US campuses. President Dong was particularly interested in learning how Research Centers like TIMES function in the United States, as well as TIMES’ involvement with the Texas Center for Learning Disabilities. President Dong’s own research is closely related to the TCLD, engaging primarily in studies on child and adolescent psychological development and evaluation, language and mathematics learning and its brain mechanism, and quality monitoring and education evaluation.
President Dong, as well as Deputy Director of BNU, Kai Xiao, and UH Professor for Global Leadership Studies, Dr. Yali Zou were treated to a 
presentation by TIMES professor and TCLD Investigator, Dr. Paul Cirino. Dr. Cirino’s talk focused on the ways TIMES’ structure helps its researchers focus on science, rather than administrative function during funded research.
After comparing notes on methodology within the realm of Learning Disabilities research, the guests were treated to a tour of TIMES, including its brand new wet lab space.
More about President Dong:
Dong Qi was born in 1961 in Chongqing. He holds a doctorate in Psychology and is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor. Dong Qi is the current President of Beijing Normal University, presiding over BNU’s administration, in charge of financial work, human resources development, education discipline development, and continuing education work. As such he is responsible for the President’s Office, the Finance Office, the Accounting Center, the Personnel Office and the HR Service Center.
He serves as the chief scientist for “research on children’s brain development and quality education,” a project of the National “Climbing” Program. He is also the chief in charge of “The Investigation of Chinese children and teenagers’ psychological development features,” a National R&D Infrastructure and Facility Development Program of the State Ministry of Science and Technology.
President Dong is involved in more than ten other national and provincial key projects and major international cooperation projects. Currently, he is in charge of the national brain science and cognitive science innovation talent-introduction base. He is a winner of the National Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars award, a candidate for the National Hundred and Thousand Talents Program, and he was among the first group winners of the Trans-Century Program Foundation for Talents supported by the Ministry of Education.
