An announcement by the Organization Department of Yunnan Province said that 15 scholars from universities and institutes of the province will be supported by “The distinguished scholars in Yunnan” Program. Prof. Yu Diqiu of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) is on the name list.

Prof. Yu Diqiu is currently chairman of Academic Committee of XTBG. He is a prominent and leading researcher. After coming back from USA to work in XTBG in 2003, he is principal investigator of Plant Molecular Biology Group and focuses on studies of molecular mechanism of interaction between plants and environmental factors, signaling pathways, etc. He has completed important research programs and cultivated a batch of young scientists. His research results have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), The Plant Cell, Plant Journal, Plant Physiology, Molecular Plant, etc.

“The distinguished scholars in Yunnan" is a program launched by Yunnan Province, which aims at implementing the Medium-and Long-term Program for Talent Development of Yunnan, training and bringing up science and technology talents. It plans to select100 high-level talents between 2014 and 2020 and build good environment for innovative sci-tech talents to do innovative work, and give financial support for their development. The selected distinguished scholars will be given the title as “Yunling scholars”.

In 2014, Prof. Li Qingjun of XTBG was one of the first batch of winners supported by “The distinguished scholars in Yunnan" program.