Jeffrey S. Lehman '77, chancellor and founding dean of the Peking University School of Transnational Law, former Cornell president and professor of law at Cornell (on leave), was one of 50 people to receive the People's Republic of China Friendship Award, the country's highest award for "foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the country's economic and social progress."

The award was presented Sept. 29 in the Great Hall of the People by Vice Premier Zhang DeJiang. Lehman spoke on behalf of the 50 recipients at the ceremony. Premier Wen Jiabao's congratulations to Lehman Sept. 30 was broadcast on Chinese television.

Lehman served as Cornell's 11th president from 2003 until he resigned in 2005. In 2008 he was named the chancellor and founding dean of the School of Transnational Law at Peking University's Shenzhen campus. The school is the first in mainland China to offer classes leading to a J.D. degree and modeled on the American style of law school, and it is intended that graduates will be eligible to sit for the New York bar exam.