In late March, 2018, a delegation of Taiwanese cognitive neuroscience experts, led by Ovid Tzeng, Chancellor of the University System of Taiwan and an academician and distinguished research fellow of Academia Sinica, attended an international conference on “Cognitive Mechanisms and Discourse Strategies as Instruments of Overcoming Socio-Cultural Challenges and Threats” at the Russian State University for the Humanities in response to an invitation by Professor Vera Zabotkina, the Vice-rector for International Cooperation.

The visiting delegation had five members: Ovid Tzeng, his wife Professor Daisy Lan Hung, Professor Kuo Wei-Jui from National Taiwan Normal University, Professor Lee Jun-Ren from National Yang-Ming University, and Dr. Rose Ru-Whui Lee from the Magneto-encephalography  Laboratory at Academia Sinica. Ovid Tzeng presented a paper on the “Threat of Global Illiteracy in a Modern Society with Eight-O Complexity” which received a warm response.

The delegation also visited two of the most prestigious universities in Russia to conduct academic exchanges: Moscow State University, and Sechenov University (formerly called First Moscow State Medical University). During these visits, Ovid Tzeng expressed the desire of the University System of Taiwan to cooperate with leading Russian universities and promote mutual exchanges and understanding. William Lu, Secretary of the Education Division of the Taipei-Moscow Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission (TMECCC) who was accompanying the delegation, pointed out that such current exchanges are mainly focused on language and literature, and that Taiwan is looking forward to establishing academic and research interaction in other fields, such as medicine, culture and the arts, physical education, and technology, fields in which Russia has accomplishments that are recognized around the world.

The Russian State University for the Humanities is a leading university in Russia, with more than 10,000 students. It was established in 1991, as the result of the merger between Moscow Public University (which was founded in 1908) and the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives (founded in 1930). The university’s motto is “Centuries-old Tradition, Contemporary Technology”.