PhD students Wang Miaomiao and Zhu Qinggang from Fruit Science Institute of Zhejiang University attended the VI International Symposium on Persimmon held in Spain from October 16th to 20th, 2016. This scientific meeting was organized by Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) and sponsored by the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). 150 participants coming from 13 different countries discussed the latest advances in persimmon cultivation.

During this Symposium, 5 plenary lectures, 37 oral presentations and 39 posters have been submitted. Organized in six specific sessions, complete persimmon cycle was covered, from the status of persimmon cultivation, plant genetic resources, breeding and biotechnology, crop management, pest and diseases and postharvest biology and technology. PhD student Wang Miaomiao of Fruit Science Institute did an oral presentation with the topic of “DkERF: One of the linkages between postharvest deastringency and softening for persimmon fruit” and won an award for the “Best Oral Presentation”, which is the only award for oral presentation.

The two PhD students attending this symposium was supported by the “Research on environment adaptability and quality control mechanism of fresh edible agricultural products” of the national key R&D projects and “Graduate students going abroad to attend the international conferences” project of the Graduate School of Zhejiang University.