The discipline of Botany at College of Life Sciences of Shandong Agriculture University was established in 1952, on the basis of teaching and research section of Botany of the university. In 1998, the teaching and research section of Botany was merged to the newly founded College of Life Sciences and was reorganized as the Department of Botany.In 1999, the application to award Master’s degree in “developmental biology “ was approved, and the application to award Doctor’s degree in “developmental biology “ was approved in 2002.   

1.Major research area

•Pluripotency of plant cells

•The formation and maintenance of plant stem cells

•Plant reproduction and development

•The molecular mechanism and regulation of agricultural traits in crops

2.Faculty team

Currently there are 21 teachers in the discipline of Botany, including 11 professors (3 oversea part-time professors included), 6 associate professors. Among them, 11 are doctoral supervisors, and 17 are master supervisors. One faculty member was elected into the national thousand talents project. One faculty member was awarded the title of National 973 chief scientist . One faculty member was elected into the first and second level of the national  hundred, thousand, 10 thousand talents project. One member won the state council subsidy. One faculty member was elected to the Taishan scholar climbing project of Shandong province and three faculty members were elected into the Taishan scholar program of Shandong province. One research team was elected into the “double hundred foreign experts project”.

3.Current research projects

In the last five years, the faculty has successively undertaken the national 973 project, 863 project, national major scientific research project, the national natural science foundation projects, the national program of transgenic plants and more than 20 provincial scientific research projects. The accumulated funds are nearly 50 million Yuan.

4.Publications and achievements

The faculty has published more than 100 research papers in high level domestic and international academic journals, such as Plant Cell, PNAS, PLoS Genetics, Molecular Plant, Plant Physiology, and so on. One 1st price of Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation was won. Four national patents for invention were authorized.