CHEN Zhangliang

 

Vice President and Executive Secretary, China Association for Science and Technology

Prof. Zhangliang Chen was born on February 3, 1961 in Fujian, China. He received his Ph.D in Prof. Roger Beachy’s lab from Washington University in St. Louis, majored in molecular biology and biotechnology，as one of pioneer researchers in transgenic plants. He returned back to China and became the youngest associate professor in the country at Peking University when he was 26 years old. Two years later he became the youngest professor in China. He then served as Department Chairman, Dean in the school of Life Sciences and became the Vice president in Peking University in 1996. Professor Chen took the position as the President of China Agricultural University, the best agricultural university in China in 2002. He was Director of China National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, one of largest centers in China for R&D of agrobiotechnology. He has been actively involved in agrobiotechnology research and biosafety issues. He is member in China National Agro-GMO Bio-Safety Committee, which approves GMO field trials and commercialization. He and his colleagues have published 7 books and nearly 200 papers. Prof. Chen has been invited to be member in the Council of Advisors in the World Food Prize in Iowa from 2007 till now. He has received many honors including Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons in China, Distinguished Alumni Awards from Washington University in 2002, UNESCO Javed Husain Prize for Young Scientists and TIME's Global 100 Roster of Young Leaders for the New Millennium. He was the member of Global Leaders Tomorrow of the Davos World Economic Forum. Professor Chen was appointed as Vice Governor of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Province) in 2007, in charge of agriculture, rural development, poverty alleviation as well as science and technology in the province with 51 million populations in southern China. In June 2013, Professor Chen was appointed as Vice President and Executive Secretary of China Association for Science and Technology, which is the biggest organization of science and technology community in China.