Transcript Staff Writer

The idea began about two years ago: With a world becoming increasingly interconnected, why not promote collaboration in the sciences?

Now University of Oklahoma President David Boren has seen his goal come to fruition. The U.S.-China Symposium on Meteorology: Mesoscale Meteorology and Data Assimilation starts today at OU.

The event is groundbreaking; it's the first-ever bilateral symposium on meteorology between the two countries, said Dr. Peter Lamb, George Lynn Cross research professor of meteorology and director of NOAA Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies.

Lamb was one of the major coordinators of the symposium that will be at the National Weather Center on the OU Research Campus today through Thursday.

"I think our cooperation benefits both China and the U.S.," said Gongbing Peng, secretery-general of the China Science Center of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, who arrived in Norman Sunday night with about 40 scientists who make up China's delegation to the symposium.

China can learn from the U.S., which is "one of the most developed countries in the field of meteorology," said Dr. Wang Huijun, director-general of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

And the U.S. can learn from China, which has unique weather systems and climates, he said. China also has researched similar severe weather patterns as the U.S., but in different conditions that can shed much light on U.S. research, Lamb said.

The event will address six topics, with a keynote speaker on each one from both the U.S. and China. The speakers come from universities and science academies throughout both nations, Lamb said.

The topics will focus on mesoscale meteorology, or "small, destructive weather systems," such as thunderstorms and tornados, he said.

The theme was chosen because it's a concern both countries share, Huijun said.

The symposium also will focus on new methods of data assimilation, and in that way it will focus on the "frontier" of meteorology, Huijun said. It also will be a step forward in the frontier of U.S.-China relations.

"We hope to discuss future collaborations," Huijun said.

The symposium could only be possible through the funding of the OU president's office, Lamb said. The office funded nine Chinese scientists coming to the symposium and funded about 25 more in part, he said.

This is really just the first step in the collaboration between the U.S. and China, Lamb said. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding that will create opportunities like this through 2012.