Alice Cheung, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, recently delivered the 18^th Shang-Fa Yang Memorial Lectures at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, and was named an Honorary Academician of Academia Sinica, one of the highest academic honors that Taiwan bestows.

Image

The Shang-Fa Yang Memorial Educational Foundation annually recognizes an outstanding agricultural scientist with profound global impact. Cheung was honored at an award ceremony on Sept. 15 at the Academia Sinica Nangang Campus, at which she presented her lecture, “The Molecular Choreography of Male-Female Interplays to Enable Fertilization in Flowering Plants.” Cheung shared key findings from her decades of research on plant reproduction and cellular signaling, work that has helped reveal how pollen tubes are guided by female tissues, grow toward the ovule, and ultimately deliver sperm cells for fertilization.

The next day, at the Academia Sinica Southern Campus in Tainan, Cheung presented research on reproductive barriers in plants, while Hen-Ming Wu, research professor in biochemistry and molecular biology at UMass Amherst, discussed the role of the FERONIA receptor kinase in regulating plant growth and survival.

Shang-Fa Yang was one of the most influential plant biochemists of the 20^th century, best known for the landmark discovery of the ethylene biosynthesis pathway now known as the "Yang" cycle. Ethylene is a key plant hormone that regulates processes including seed germination, fruit ripening, senescence and stress responses. The Shang-Fa Yang Memorial Foundation established the symposium to honor his legacy and continue his lifelong passion for advancing agricultural biotechnology.

Each year, the foundation recognizes outstanding agricultural scientists with significant global impact, honoring their scholarly achievements and inviting them to deliver keynote lectures. Through this initiative, the foundation aims to cultivate the next generation of agricultural scientific talent and foster global academic exchange and development in the field of agricultural biosciences.

More information about the hang-Fa Yang Memorial Lecture can be found on the Academia Sinica website.