On December 15, 2018, Dr. C. Daniel Mote, President of National Academy of Engineering (NAE), received honorary doctorate of Peking University.

Presenting in the ceremony were Ping Hao, President of Peking University, Qihuang Gong, Vice President of Peking University, Yongji Xu, Deputy Director of International Cooperation and Exchanges Department, Ministry of Education, Wei Jing, Deputy Director of Hanban, and George Lee, Chairman of the Board, DeTao Group. Wen Gao, Director of PKU Faculty of Information and Engineering Science, Dongxiao Zhang, Executive Vice Dean of PKU Graduate School and Dean of PKU College of Engineering, Zhili Sun, Secretary of CPC Committee and Associate Dean of PKU College of Engineering, Hongwei Xia, Director of PKU Office of International Relations, Yu’ning Li, Secretary General of PKU Education Foundation, and more than 100 teachers and students from Peking University participated in the ceremony.

At the awarding ceremony, Ping Hao appreciated Daniel Mote for his academic achievements and social contributions and thanked him for supporting the development of Peking University.

Mote had been teaching in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley for 31 years, and was globally recognized for his research in Gyro system dynamics and skiing biomechanics. The NAE elected him to membership in 1988.

Mote has also been actively supporting exchanges between China and the US for a long time. In 2004, then as the President of the University of Maryland, he actively promoted the first Confucius Institute in the United States located in the University of Maryland. In 2014, he was awarded the Chinese Government Friendship Award. He was elected as a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in 2015. Since he served as the President of NAE in 2013, he has united CAE and Royal Academy of Engineering to jointly organize the Global Grand Challenges Summit for three times. In 2016 and 2017, he visited College of Engineering of Peking University and later supported PKU in joining the "Grand Challenges Scholars Program".

After the speech, Ping Hao awarded Mote the honorary doctoral degree certificate of Peking University. The student representative wore the university badge for him.

Daniel Mote giving a speech

Mote expressed his gratitude for the honor given by Peking University and gave a wonderful speech entitled "Grand Challenges of Engineering in the 21^st Century", which elaborated on the challenges and opportunities faced by modern engineering development and engineering education.

Before the awarding ceremony, Peking University and Detao Group signed an agreement for a joint support to the Grand Challenges Scholars Program at PKU. George Lee, on behalf of DeTao Group, signed the agreement with Peking University Education Foundation and College of Engineering in Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center. The two parties promised to jointly cope with the challenges of engineering in the 21^st century.

Peking University and DeTao join hands to meet "Grand Challenges"

Daniel Mote, Jr. receiving Honorary Doctorate of Peking University