Alumnus Tongkui Ju awarded Thomas Hart Benton Medal, McRobbie visits Shanghai Central Conservatory
President McRobbie meets with officials from the Shanghai Central Conservatory.
On Friday, President McRobbie wrapped up his 15-day trip to East Asia with a brief stop in Shanghai. There he met with officials at the Shanghai Central Conservatory and spoke at a special alumni reception where he presented distinguished alumnus Tongkui Ju with the Thomas Hart Benton Medal.
Friday morning, McRobbie met with Shanghai Central Conservatory President Xu Shuya to talk about expanded collaboration between the conservatory and the IU Jacobs School of Music, particularly for faculty/student master classes, recitals, and other joint activities. The Jacobs School, a world renown music school, is interested in working more closely with the conservatory, the premier institution of higher education for music in China. The two already have links, the closest through IU professor Menahem Pressler and his student June Xiao. For the Jacobs School, such a partnership would create a base for engaging with academic and professional cultural institutions in Shanghai, one of Asia’s cultural hotspots.
That evening, McRobbie addressed dozens of IU alumni at a gathering of the IUAA Shanghai Chapter. After providing a brief update to the attendees about all the exciting recent developments at IU, he presented the Thomas Hart Benton Medal to IU alumnus Tongkui Ju, a distinguished jurist in China and a 1949 graduate of the Maurer School of Law. The medal is given to individuals who have achieved a level of distinction in public office or service and have exemplified the values of IU.
President McRobbie awards alumnus Tongkui Ju with Thomas Hart Benton Medal.
About Tongkui Ju (from IU official release)
Ju, also a graduate of Soochow University, has served as a judge in Shanghai District Court and played a key role in the reorganization of the Shanghai Lawyers’ Association. He worked on several of the largest joint-venture and private-direct investment activities in China as a senior attorney there.
For example, in 1982 Ju represented the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Industrial Corp. in successful joint venture negotiations with Squibb Corp., which was the first American drug company to establish such a joint venture in China. He also served as a visiting researcher at the Research Institute of Legal Science at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science.
For more than three decades, Ju has fostered close ties to IU and the Maurer School, hosting students in its alumni shadow program and assisting those hoping to connect with other IU alumni and lawyers in Shanghai.”
