About Us

   Introduction of Discipline

      Discipline of vegetable science of Zhejiang University, which is founded by the distinguished scientist, the inventor of modern horticulture theory, Genming Wu in 1927, has become one of the most important research institution of vegetable science in China after generations’ efforts and development under the guide of professor Shuxuan Li and other famous scientist. In 1981, it became one of the first batch of disciplines which was allowed to award Ph D and M.S. degrees; in 1989, 2001 and 2006, it was approved as the national key discipline. In the evaluation organized by Ministry of education (MOE) in 2003 and 2007, horticulture discipline which covers vegetable science was ranked as NO. 1 and in 2013, it was ranked as NO. 2. Discipline of vegetable of science provides academic basis for discipline of Yangtse River Scholar (MOE) and key laboratory of horticultural plant growth and development and quality regulation (Ministry of Agriculture), and is the key construction discipline of “985” and “211” project. Discipline of vegetable of science has an excellent team for teaching, research and service for the society and has three sci & tech innovation group, i.e. “Horticultural crop growth and development and quality regulation” (MOE); “industrialized greenhouse agriculture” (Zhejiang province); and “advanced technology for horticultural crop breeding” (Zhejiang province). To date, the institute of vegetable science has 20 members of teaching and research, among which there are 10 professors, 6 associate professors or senior technicians and 10 supervisors for Ph D students. There are one winner of “thousands plan”, one super expert of Zhejiang province, two Yangtse River Scholar of MOE, one winner of national outstanding youth natural science foundation, three winners of new century talent plan of MOE, one excellent university young teacher of MOE, six winner of “Zhejiang 151 talent plan” (level one and two), and two post scientists of national modern agricultural technology innovation system. Eighty percent of people in the institute of vegetable science are below the age of 45, and about 95% of the people own Ph D degree.
The discipline has a complete education system from undergraduate students, graduate students, Ph D students and postdoc fellowship. The institute enrolled annually 30-40 undergraduate students, 25-30 master degree student with science degree and technology degree combined and 10 Ph D students. During the recent 5 years, about 250 students get the degrees, among which there are 40 Ph D, 90 M.S. and 100 BS, 9 foreign students with Ph D and M.S. combined, and 8 researcher successfully accomplished the work requirements for the postdoc fellowship. In recent years, two Ph D thesis were awarded as “National top 100 excellent Ph D thesis” and another two were nominated for the award. There are several scholarship such as “Shuxuan Li Vegetable Science Fund”, “Liangcheng Zhang Horticultural Fund” and “Ziyuan Chen Agricultural Science Fund” for the undergraduate and graduate students.
In recent five years, the institute achieve one grant from national key basic Research Development Program (973 program), two grants from National Key Technology Support Program, one grand from the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program), 20 grants from national science foundation and other grants from international cooperation. In 2010, the total funding reached 20 million RMB. The institute achieved one 2nd class national natural science award and five 1st class award from Zhejiang province or similar level, published 15 academic books and edited 5 text books, including “Breeding of Horticultural plants” and “Olericulture”. In recent 5 years, the institute has a total of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, of which more than 40 papers are published in SCI journals such as Trends in Plant Science, PLOS Genetics, Plant Physiology, New Phytologist, Plant Cell Environ, Plant Biothechnology JournalJournal of Experimental BotanyPlantMolecular Biology Rerporter
     In 2011, the institute has been successfully moved from Huajiachi Campus to Zijingang Campus, which accelerate the improvement of facility of teaching and research and also crease an environment for inter-discipline crosstalk. The institute now has a total research area of 3000 m2, a modern experimental base of 2 hm2 and greenhouse areas of 4000 m2. The institute has a complete set of experimental equipments for study of cell biology, molecular biology & breeding, plant metabolomics & phytohormone and regulation of plant growth and development. There are more than 100 facility that costs more than 10000 RMB and the total costs for the facility are more than 20 millions.
 The discipline constructed an institute of vegetable science, including four research directions, with corresponding lab group and research center for Mushroom, greenhouse horticulture and germplasmevaluation. The research focus include regulation of vegetable crop growth and development and safe production, functional gene identification and regulation, plant physiology, biochemistry and metabolism, and germplasm innovation and molecular breeding.
Dean of institute of vegetable science: Professor Jiashu Cao
Vice dean of institute of vegetable science: Professor Bingliang Wang, Professor Liping Chen, Professor Gang Lu
Principal investigator of discipline: Professor Jingquan Yu