Joaquim NASSAR: recipient of Shanghai’s first unified work permit for foreigners

First visit to Shanghai

2014 was the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations. Prof. Nassar was invited to attend the commemorative activity at SPEIT along with a great many leading French experts in the field such as the 2012 Nobel Laureate, Serge Haroche.

Shanghai college students’ proficiency in French and understanding of French culture made a deep impression on Prof. Nassar. During the commemoration, many students of SPEIT could fluently explain their physics experiments in French and even ask great questions to leading scientists.

Prof. Nassar told the reporter, “It was probably at that time that I thought about coming to work here. I did not expect it would be realized in just a year.”

In 2015, Prof. Nassar came to work in Shanghai as the French dean of the SJTU–ParisTech Elite Institute of Technology. Before departure, he had been working for two years as the person in charge of the cultivation plan for the engineers of this new college. During this time, he traveled between China and France multiple times. He praised Shanghai’s investment in education and the sciences. Shanghai Jiao Tong University has world-class laboratories and experienced faculty, many of which are returning students from top universities overseas. “Every time I come to SJTU I am shocked by the school’s enormous investment in terms of faculty, facilities, technology and its students,” says Prof. Nassar.