On the morning of November 20, 2017, Associated Professor Yuji Arai from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign came to our department and Dean Youying Tu, Professor Puming He, Associate Professor Ping Chen and Dr. Jianhui Ye introduced our Department of Tea Science.

Firstly, Professor He made a detailed and vivid introduction to the history including the origin of Chinese tea and the establishment of our department.Then Dr.Ye briefly introduced the research areas and personnel training of our department. She also discussed with Professor Arai on how to broaden students' international horizon and their planning for the future. 

By making and tasting tea, Dr.Chen showed special Chinese tea culture and combined with soil and water environment to explain the influence of soil on the formation of the quality characteristics of West Lake longjing tea and Wuyi Yan tea. In the end of the morning, Dr. Arai, based on his field of research on soil and water chemistry, expressed his understanding of the physiology and ecology of tea. He also communicated with all teachers present about techniques and methods to test biochemical components in tea leaves and the environment. 

Dr. Arai employs a broad range of traditional and cutting-edge molecular scale approaches and tools at various temporal scales to better understand the complex chemical processes in soils and at the mineral-water interface. This understanding allows him to predict the biogeochemical fate/cycles of nutrients and contaminants and to assess the risk in the aquatic and terrestrial environment.