From August 29th to 30th, the 2018 Crop Disease Resistance Forum was held in the College of Agriculture at our university. The forum was sponsored by the university's "Crop Disease Resistance Breeding and Genetic Improvement Innovation Talent Introduction Base" project. More than 200 experts, scholars, and student representatives in the field of crop disease resistance breeding and genetic improvement from domestic and foreign countries attended the forum. Vice President Luo Jun attended the meeting and delivered the opening speech.
The forum was chaired by Professor Shan Weixing, a specially appointed professor of the Ministry of Education and the dean of theCollege of Agronomy . Foreign experts including Professor Karl-Heinz Kogel from the University of Giessen in Germany, Professor Murray Grant, Professor Patrick Schäfer, and Professor Lorenzo Frigerio from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, Professor Gary Loake from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and Dr. Christine Coustau, the director of the French National Institute of Scientific Research, delivered keynote speeches. Domestic experts including Dr. Ding Bo and Dr. Yang Qiuying from the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Wang Wenming from the Rice Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University also delivered keynote speeches. Experts from our university including Professor Min Donghong, Professor Zhang Meng, Professor Sun Liying, Professor Chen Mingxun, Professor Yang Qin, Professor Shan Weixing, Associate Professor Du Yu, Associate Professor Nie Xiaojun, as well as Dr. Li Weiwei and Dr. Yang Yang also presented academic reports and engaged in exchanges. The reports covered multiple areas including the mechanisms of crop disease resistance and stress tolerance, plant-microbe interactions, innovation in crop germplasm resources, and new strategies for molecular breeding of crops.
Nineteen outstanding academic reports shared the latest achievements and progress in crop disease resistance breeding research from different perspectives, leaving valuable knowledge wealth to the teachers and students present. The teachers and students at the forum interacted enthusiastically with the presenters, engaging in in-depth discussions on the content and issues of interest in the reports, benefiting greatly from the exchanges.
The elite gathering at the Crop Disease Resistance Forum promoted academic exchanges and friendships in the academic community. The forum played an important role in forming an international academic team, promoting substantial cooperative research at the talent introduction base, strengthening the training of high-level talents, and enhancing the research level and influence of our university's crop discipline.
