The 1st Zhejiang University-Cornell University Graduate Student International Workshop was successfully held on Oct. 23-24, 2021. The workshop was sponsored by the Graduate School and hosted by the Zhejiang University College of Agriculture and Biotechnology. A total of 293 students and scholars participated in the workshop online.
On the topic of Frontiers in Agricultural Bioscience, the workshop invited internationally renowned experts and scholars from Cornell University and young scholars returning from Cornell University to share their research progress, including those in the field of agriculture using cutting-edge technologies, such as genomics, cell biology, microbiomics, etc. The event also included oral and poster presentations by graduate students, in which a total of 52 graduate students participated and introduced their research progress to the audience.
（poster）
On the morning of October 23rd, Prof. Junbo Luan from Shenyang Agricultural University gave a speech entitled Molecular and cellular basis of persistence of whitefly symbiosis, introducing the mutualistic mechanism of whitefly and its symbiotic bacteria, and a potential green pest control strategy based on this. Dr. Ning Zhang from Cornell University gave a presentation titled Application of genome editing in enhancing disease resistance in tomato, showing the application of gene editing technology in tomato. Prof. Liangsheng Wang from China Agricultural University gave a talk entitled Molecular mechanism of singlet oxygen-induced signaling in chloroplasts of higher plants.
(Prof. Junbo Luan's (left) and Dr. Ning Zhang's (right) talks)
(Prof. Liangsheng Wang's talk)
On the morning of October 24th, Prof. Jocelyn Rose and Prof. Zhangjun Fei from Cornell University and Prof. Xu Yi from Nanjing Agricultural University gave wonderful presentations to the students. Prof. Jocelyn Rose gave a talk entitled Plant permeability, pathogens and the protective polymers that allow life on land; Prof. Zhangjun Fei’s speech topic is the “Genomic analyses shed light on watermelon origin and the genetic history of domestication and agronomic traits; Prof. Yi Xu gave a talk entitled An evolutionary view of the arms race between host and virus movement.
(Prof. Jocelyn Rose's (left) and Prof. Zhangjun Fei's (right) presentations)
(Prof. Xu Yi's report)
Graduate students of CAB also actively participated in this event, introducing their research progress in front of nearly 300 audiences. Twelve students gave oral presentations while 40 did poster presentations. At the end of the workshop, both the best oral/poster presentation awards and the excellent oral/poster presentation awards were selected by voting from all the online participants.
(winners of the awards)
(some oral presentations)
(some poster presentations)
The workshop widened the academic vision of the graduate students in the field of agronomy, improved their ability of expression and presentation, inspired the students' enthusiasm for researching in agricultural science, and provided a good start for the collaborative activities between Zhejiang University and Cornell University.