Coffee Across Borders
ECH 1 — "The Design of Coffee" may be one of the most popular electives on the University of California, Davis, campus, but it has also gained popularity at Osaka University, or OU. Tonya Kuhl, chair of the UC Davis Department of Chemical Engineering and co-director of the Coffee Center research facility, has taught the class as a three-week intensive international exchange subject at the Japan-based college twice since 2018, enrolling up to 100 students each session.
UC Davis is a Global Knowledge Partner of OU, and Kuhl has fostered close ties with bio-inspired chemical engineering professor Hiroshi Umakoshi. UC Davis has hosted visits from OU students and a two-week stay for Nozomi Watanabe, an assistant professor in Umakoshi's lab, encouraging international partnerships and sharing of knowledge.
"Professor Umakoshi and I have been collaborating since 2016," said Kuhl. "Since then, students have come three times. All of these visits have been supported by Osaka University or the Japanese equivalent of the National Science Foundation. We also co-organized an AIChE conference symposium to bring together U.S. and Japanese researchers."
OU recently highlighted the collaboration, noting the Umakoshi and Kuhl's partnership "demonstrates the power of transboundary cooperation.
Together, they bring complementary expertise to the table, fostering an environment where ideas flourish and breakthroughs emerge."