From Feb. 26th – Mar. 15th, Prof. Susanne S. Renner, academician of Germany Academy of Sciences, Danish Academy of Sciences and Bavarian Academy of Sciences, president of Systematic Botany of Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, director of the Nymphenburg Botanical Garden, and Prof. Robert E. Ricklefs, academician of U. S. Academy of Sciences, visited South China Botanical Garden, SCBG, by the invitation of Dr. ZHANG Dianxiang, principal investigator of the field of plant systematic & evolutionary biology of SCBG.

During the visit, Prof. Renner and Prof. Ricklefs presented three academic reports respectively. They also discussed more about evolutionary biology with colleagues, who are form South China Agricultural University, Sun Yat-sen University, Kunming Institute of Botany-CAS, Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences-CAS, Institute of Botany-CAS, especially with the researchers and graduates of the field of plant systematic & evolutionary biology of SCBG. Moreover, they went to Xiangtoushan Mountain and Gudoushan Mountain in Guangdong, Ganshiling Mountain in Hainan, Emeishan Mountain in Sichuan, and so on for field observation accompanied by Dr. Zhang Dianxiang, Dr. LUO Shixiao and some other researchers and graduates. By these chances, some researchers and graduates learned much about pollination biology form them both. During the field trip, Dr. Zhang communicated with them in more details about the on-gong cooperation projects and planned further cooperation.

Prof. Renner is an internationally renowned evolutionary botanist. She has achieved remarkable results on the evolution of flowering plants, especially on the evolution of plant mating system, pollination biology and biogeography. She has published more than 170 papers on Nature, PNAS, Systematic Biology, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Trends in Plant Science, etc. She is a visiting professor of SCBG, and carries out some international cooperation projects with Zhang since 2004. Dr. This was her 4th time to SCBG. Luo and some other graduates of Zhang’s lab had been to Prof. Renner’s lab to conducte scientific research.

Prof. Ricklefs is a world famous ecologist and evolutionary biologist. His prominent achievements are on evolutionary biology, synecology, phylogeny, island biogeography. He has published over 200 papers on Nature, Science, PNAS, Evolution, Systematic Biology, Ecology, and so on. Ecology, the textbook edited by Prof. Ricklefs, sold very well over the past 40 years, and has been reissued many times.

Prof. Renner is making a report (by HUANG Xiangxu)

Prof. Ricklefs is making a report (by HUANG Xiangxu)

Prof. Renner and Prof. Ricklefs on the field trip to Xiangtou Mountain in Guangdong (by LUO Shixiao)

Prof. Ricklefs is investigating mangrove in Hainan (by LI Bo)