Professor Edward S. Buckler Visits ICS

　　On October 28, 2018, Dr. Edward S. Buckler visited the Institute of Crop Sciences (ICS). He is an academician of American Academy of Sciences, a senior scientist in the field of plant genetics at United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), and an adjunct professor of plant breeding at Cornell University.

　　The Director General of ICS Dr. Chun-Ming Liu met Dr. Buckler, and introduced the mission, the sci-tech achievements, and the innovation groups/talents of ICS to insure the national food and nutrient security. They had the in-depth discussions on global food security, climate change, application of genomic selection in ICS, etc. They also looked forward to the cooperation in the near future. Dr. Buckler also visited the science and technology exhibition hall in ICS, the Center for Crop Genomics & Molecular Design, and the Center for Crop Germplasm Resources.

　　Dr. Buckler had a seminar entitled "Breeding 4.0 – New Ways to Feed the Planet" in the lecture hall of ICS. His talk reviewed the goals and history of plant breeding; proposed innovative goals of the future crop breeding facing the vital signs of the planet, like the increasing of world population and climate change; analyzed the cost and industrial chain loss of nitrogenous fertilizer production; and prospects the possible ways of future world protein synthesis. He encouraged the multidisciplinary collaborative innovation to safeguard the world food and nutrition security. After his talk, there were warm and active discussions in the audience. More than 200 researchers and graduate students inside and outside ICS attended this seminar. In addition, more than 150 researchers listened to Dr. Bucklers’ talk through live video streaming on line. This was the first time that using the online video synchronization live to broadcast academic seminar in ICS.

　　Dr. Buckler graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in biology and archaeology. He then attended the University of Missouri and graduated with a PhD in Biology. He was a postdoctoral fellow in statistical genetics at North Carolina State University. He is recognized as a leader in the integration of quantitative and statistical genetics with genomic approaches, applying these tools to maize and other crops.He has published over 200 peer reviewed papers including Nature, Science, Nature Genetics and so on. He has numerous leadership positions within the crop genetics community and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and won the inaugural NAS Food and Agriculture Award.