University President Wallace Loh, right, and officials from China announced yesterday the creation of the Joint Center on Climate and Earth System Science, a collaboration to track and predict the global impact of climate change.

Celebrating almost seven years of collaboration between this university and China, officials from both countries have a new task to tackle together — tracking and predicting the global impact of climate change.

In front of dozens of attendees yesterday afternoon, officials from China joined university President Wallace Loh to announce the Joint Center on Global Change and Earth System Science. The new center will merge this university’s Behavioral and Social Sciences department with Beijing Normal University’s College of Global Change and Earth System Science, and it is an additional step to further strengthen academic ties between this university and China, Loh said.

“This is really a wonderful occasion,” Loh said at the ceremony held in the Samuel Riggs Alumni Center. “This is a very important moment in the history of our two countries.”

While this university and China have already been collaborating their research on global climate issues, this announcement formalizes the partnership that stemmed from a seven-day tour of China that Loh and Gov. Martin O’Malley took in June, according to BSOS communications associate director Andrew Roberts.

He met with high-ranking officials in science and higher education in an effort to promote this university’s relationship with the country — one that will extend beyond just this joint venture with Beijing Normal University, Loh said.

Currently, this university has an exchange program between faculty, staff and researchers from both this university and Beijing Normal University, according to Loh.

In the future, the center will expand this program to include other institutions in China, a country that Loh said he sees as crucial in the coming years.

“I think this is the most important strategic partnership for the United States in the 21st century,” he said.

BSOS Dean John Townshend stated in a press release that this university is experienced in research pertaining to global climate change, furthering the importance of increased collaboration with China.

The university already uses satellite imaging to measure land cover and other aspects of global change, aggregate data and show how these changes affect the environment, Townshend said.

“Beijing Normal’s expertise serves as an excellent complement to our strengths, as evidenced by our successful collaborations over the past several years,” he stated in a press release.

Beijing Normal University’s researchers come not just from China, but many other nations, Loh said, indicating that this partnership is an important first step in bringing researchers from several countries to address pressing scientific issues, such as the global climate.

“Global climate change is one of the major issues of the 21st century,” he said. “It’s going to effect agriculture, it’s going to effect level of the sea water, it’s going to have enormous impact upon quality of life, and we need to bring in the best minds from all over the world.”

bach@umdbk.com