The 11th International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA)-China group annual meeting was held at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) from November 15th to 17th, 2024. With the theme of “Empowering wood anatomy technology development through new quality productivity”, it brought together over 180 experts, scholars, and graduate students from 37 universities, research institutes, and industry-related units from home and abroad.
At the opening ceremony, Du Guanben, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Southwest Forestry University, delivered a speech via video.
The keynote speakers were Profs. Yin Yafang, Yoon Soon Kim, He Xinqiang,Tomoyuki Fujii, and Qiu Jian. Their speeches were concerning "Reflections on the reconstruction of China's wood specimen resource system", "What overlooked by wood anatomists in studies on wood cultural heritages", "Phytohormone interactions in regulation of the secondary vascular tissue pattern formation in Populus", "Mogami Tokunai’s wood collection and Kohara Jiro’s microscopic slides", and "Eyewood for wood identification and team work" respectively.
Seven topics were discussed, including: (1) Wood anatomy advancements of domestic and international; (2) Dendrochronology science; (3) Wood biology; (4) Identification and preservation of archaeological wooden remains; (5) Application of multidisciplinary fusion in wood anatomy; (6) Anatomical structure and utilization of bamboo and vine; (7) Construction of digital platforms for wood specimen databases relevant to dual carbon strategies.
A commemoration ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of IAWA China was also held during the conference.
Since its establishment in 2014, the IAWA China has held an academic conference annually. It showcased the latest research advancements in China's wood anatomy domain, fostering exchanges and collaborations between domestic and international scholars in wood anatomy, injecting new vitality into the development of wood science and technology disciplines.
