Studying at TSU will help a Chinese scientist preserve nature in China

23 September 2019

Chuck Yang, a graduate student from Sichuan University in the People’s Republic of China, has come to TSU to work with the exhibits of Herbarium named after P.N. Krylov, which houses a unique collection of plants in Siberia and adjacent regions. The young scientist is confident that the knowledge gained in Siberia can be useful for preserving the biodiversity of the Chinese flora.

- I am amazed at the size of TSU Herbarium plant collections, - Chuck Yang shares his impressions. -They were formed over many years by Tomsk florists and taxonomists, and your scientific school has tremendous experience in collecting and identifying plants. In China, this area is less developed, but now high-tech molecular research methods are gaining momentum, and I think our efforts to study plant diversity and phylogeny can complement each other well.

The fundamental areas of botanical research, according to Chuck, are closely related to the conservation of biodiversity in China and Russia, because in order to properly protect plants, it is necessary to understand the origin and time of formation of rare species. Expanding the geography of research will be useful to both Russian and Chinese botanists, because many plant genera are found in both countries. According to the scientist, joining forces will give more reliable results for building phylogenetic trees that reflect evolutionary events within the species.

- More than 60 people work in our laboratory. The team is divided into small groups, each of which leads its own projects,- says Chuck. - My working day usually lasts 12 hours, but often my colleagues and I stay at work for 48 hours in a row, having a snack and relaxing right in the laboratory. This allows us to analyze large amounts of data in a fairly short time.

Professor Jianquan Lie, a scientist with the Scopus Hirsch index of 46, leads the key bioresource and environmental laboratory where Chuck Yang works. He was recognized as one of the most cited Chinese scientists of 2018, so the prospects for collaboration with his team are of interest to TSU botanists. Chuck will return home not only with new knowledge but also with an agreement on collaboration and joint publications in the near future.