The Madison Committee on Foreign Relations (MCFR) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison invite you to participate in a special event:
Local Connections, National Reflections
Monday, October 18, 2010
5:30-8:15 p.m.
Pacific Room, Edgewater Hotel, 666 Wisconsin Ave.
Registration required (Details below)
Download full event invite here.
The program will open with a lecture by Derek Vollmer, program officer with The National Academies, on “Energy Futures: Challenges for China and the United States.”
Following Mr. Vollmer’s presentation in Madison, the group will join a national Web cast from Washington, D.C. featuring Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. Steve Orlins, president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, will moderate this 45-minute portion of the program.
China Town Hall is a national day of programming on China involving 50 cities throughout the United States. Nationally this event is brought to you by the National Committee on United States-China Relations. Locally, the Madison Committee on Foreign Relations (MCFR) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE) organized this event with the support of many units at the UW-Madison including the Center for East Asian Studies, the Wisconsin China Initiative, the Center for International Business Education & Research, Global Studies, and the Division of International Studies.
If you are planning to attend the October 18 event (without funding assistance), please RSVP to mcfr@tcgcorp.net by, October 14.
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About the Speakers:
Derek Vollmer is a program officer for the Science and Technology for Sustainability Program (STS) at the National Academies. He has organized and directed several international cooperative activities, among them the National Research Council’s consensus study “Energy Futures and Urban Air Pollution: Challenges for China and the United States,” and the current study of cooperation on renewable energy. Mr. Vollmer has also directed projects and contributed to research examining applications of sustainability principles, such as public-private partnerships and standards/certification networks. Mr. Vollmer received his B.A. in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame and his M.S. in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University. He speaks Mandarin Chinese.
Jon Huntsman was asked by President Barack Obama to serve as United States ambassador to China in May 2009 and his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate. Huntsman was sworn in as ambassador immediately following his resignation as the governor of Utah on Tuesday, August 11, 2009. Huntsman’s breadth of experience in Asia has been developed over a lifetime of interest and involvement. He has previously lived in Asia three times and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese.
Huntsman’s public service career began as a White House staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan and has since included appointments as deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for Asia, U.S. ambassador to Singapore, and deputy U.S. trade representative. As a U.S. trade ambassador, Huntsman negotiated dozens of free trade agreements, trade and investment framework agreements, and brokered other bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements for the United States with China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, India, Vietnam, West Africa, South Africa, and other Asian and African nations. He played a critical role in launching global trade negotiations in Doha, Qatar in November of 2001, guiding the simultaneous accession of China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization. He is a founding director of the Pacific Council on International Policy and has served on various boards such as the Brookings Institute Asia Policy Board, the Center for Strategic and International Studies Pacific Forum, the Asia Society in New York, and the National Bureau of Asian Research. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has four honorary doctorate degrees.