Dr. Stephen Harnish, a professor and chair of mathematics at Bluffton University, will reflect Friday (Jan. 31) on his spring 2013 efforts to strengthen Bluffton’s partnership with China West Normal University.

Harnish will present “Tones, Trains and Toasts: Forging New Partnerships and Scientific Research in Sichuan Province” at 4 p.m. in Stutzman Lecture Hall in Bluffton’s Centennial Hall. The colloquium is free and open to the public.

Based on six weeks in Asia as part of his spring-semester sabbatical, Harnish will share cultural, linguistic and historic contexts and challenges, as well as the way “tones, trains and toasts” relate to the scientific research of his sabbatical and his work with the math and physics departments at China West Normal. He served as visiting scholar in the physics department at the university, which had sent 16 administrators to Bluffton for a summer 2012 visit.

Harnish will also discuss his family’s travels in Sichuan Province, other parts of China and in Vietnam, where they were hosted by Vo Thi Nhiem, a 2003 graduate of Bluffton’s master’s degree program in education.