Jiayang LiDr. Jiayang Li was awarded the Degree of Bachelor of Agronomy from Anhui Agricultural University in 1982, the Degree of Master of Science from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1984 and PhD in Biology from Brandeis University, USA, in 1991. After completing his postdoctoral research in the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) at Cornell University, Dr. Li was recruited as a Professor of plant molecular genetics by IGDB in 1994. Dr. Li's laboratory is mainly interested in the molecular genetics of higher plant development with a focus on the biosynthesis and action of plant hormones including auxin, brassinosteroid and strigolactones. Dr. Li has made seminal contributions to establishing forward genetics approaches to understand rice growth habit and to improve rice yield and quality through rational design, with his achievements receiving world-wide attention from scientific websites and public media. His achievements have also been widely recognized by scientists and his publications have been highlighted in commentaries and cited by review articles, becoming a Thomson-Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Plant and Animal Sciences. Dr. Li served as the Director General of IGDB from 1999 to 2004, Vice President of CAS from 2004 to 2011, and President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Vice-Minister of Agriculture for the People's Republic of China from 2011 to 2016. Dr Li was elected a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2004, a Foreign Associate of the USA National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2011, a Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2012, a Foreign Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2013, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2015. Read More Read Less