In commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the birth of Plant Mutation Breeding technology, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), through the Joint FAO/IAEA Division on Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture organized the FAO/IAEA International Symposium on Plant Mutation Breeding and Biotechnology in Vienna, Austria, from August 26th to 31th, 2018. As a member of the Ornization Committee, Professor Shu Qingyao (Institute of Crop Science), was invited as a keynote speaker to participate in this symposium. Professor Shu also chaired a plenary and concurrent session and acted as a panelist for the Workshop on Future Perspectives of Plant Mutation Breeding and Biotechnology during the conference.

The conference attracted more than 300 delegates from about 50 countries, including more than 20 representatives from Chinese universities and research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the China Agricultural University.

In his keynote speech, entitled “Mutation Induction and Genome Editing in Plant Breeding: Comparative Advantages and Perspectives”, Professor Shu provided insights into  the molecular mechanism of induced mutation and genome editing, especially the progress made in his own laboratory, introduced their application in plant breeding and their comparative advantages and uniqueness, , and put forward the perspectives of the two technologies for their efficient application in the years to come. During the conference, professor Shu had a wide range of communication with the delegates, who all expressed their desire to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Zhejiang University.

       After the conference, professor Shu paid a visit to the Technical University Munich in Germany, and visited the PhD student funded by the China Scholarship Council, and had a detailed discussion with professor FRANK JOHANNES on the subject research and future cooperation.