On May 28, 2008, Professor Sheldon Zedeck, Vice Provost of University of California-Berkeley,has delivered a lecture entitled "Personal Reflections of an Industrial Psychologist: "Measuring the Effectiveness of Lawyers' Performance and its Predictability:Results of a 7-Year Study" at Tsinghua SEM. Mr. Sheldon Zedeck is a professor at Department of Psychology and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Welfare of UC Berkeley. His research interests focus on Industrial/organizational/social psychology/personnel, cross-cultural work values, decision-making research, work and family issues, statistics and research methodology.

Professor Qian Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM, Professor Yang Baiyin, Chair of the Department of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, and Professor Peng Kaiping from the Department of Psychology of UC-Berkeley attended the lecture.

In his lecture, Professor Sheldon Zedeck addressed the role of industrial psychology in improving the performance of organizations and individuals. He discussed research on assessing the effectiveness of lawyers and how to predict that effectiveness. In his speech, Professor Zedeck talked about several factors affecting the effectiveness including intellectual and cognitive, research and information gathering, influencing and advocating, planning and organizing, conflict resolution, negotiation skills, able to see the world through the eyes and others, client and business relations, working with others, etc..

Professor Zedeck’s lecture was one of a series of activities held at Tsinghua during the week-long Berkeley Week at the University which kicked off on May 26.

The University of California, Berkeley is the first partner institution in the U.S. with which Tsinghua has cooperated on a University Week event. During the Berkeley Week from May 26 to May 31, there will be a series of academic lectures and workshops focusing on psychology, international relations, the life sciences, sociology, technology innovation and innovation education. The University of California, Berkeley was the first US institution of higher learning with which Tsinghua developed academic ties after China opened up in 1978. Berkeley is also one of Tsinghua’s closest overseas partner institutions. The faculty and student exchanges between the two universities have been continuous and active in a wide range of fields over the past three decades.