BMB Professor Alice Cheung led a delegation of fellow BMB faculty Dong Wang, Li-Jun Ma, and Hen-Ming Wu, along with U Texas A&M faculty Professors Ping He and Libo Shan, for a symposium at the Shandong Agricultural University (SDAU) in Tai'an, China hosted by the university President.
The symposium featured talks under the theme of biotic interactions in plants, in particular plant-microbe interaction and pollen (male)-pistil (female) interaction, fields that the UMass scientists are known to have made major contributions to. These are also areas of interest shared among the US visiting scientists and faculty from the host institution.
Beyond scientific discussions, the delegation was invited for the purpose of forging collaborations in research and student training. In addition to scientific lectures, the two-day symposium also included a meeting with the University's President and faculty to discuss approaches towards collaborative efforts.
After the meeting in SDAU, the UMass faculty continued their travels to other institutions. Alice Cheung and Hen-Ming Wu visited Huazhong Agricultural University where they have initiated collaborations with a world’s leading cotton research group headed by the Vice President of the University and Wuhan University where they have long-standing collaborations in plant reproduction biology. Dong Wang gave lectures in Nanjing University where he has on-going collaboration and Hunan University where a former postdoc has just started a faculty position. Li-Jun Ma arrived in China directly after chairing a session in the International Mycology Congress; after the symposium she headed to Boston to chair a section at the International Congress of Plant Protection, and also for discussions with several long time colleagues on their ongoing collaborations.