The Progress Report cum Academic Committee (AC) Meeting was successfully held on Mar 8, 2016 at Cho Yiu Hall of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Six world renowned overseas members of the academic committee, had accepted our invitation to join the meeting including, the Convenor of the AC Committee, Prof. Junyi Gai (Academician, CAE, Chinese Society of Soybean Research, Former President of Nanjing Agricultural University); Prof. Lizhe An (VP of Lanzhou University); Prof. W. J. Davies (Distinguished Professor of Lancaster University); Prof. Zhizhong Gong (Dean, College of Biological Sciences, CAU); Prof. Minghong Gu (Director, Jiangsu Province Key Lab of Plant Genomics, Former President of the Yangzhou University) and Prof. Anthony HC Huang (Professor of Plant Cell and Molecular Biology, University of California, Riverside).

The Opening Ceremony of the meeting was officiated by the PVC of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prof.TF Fok, who welcomed all participants at his opening remarks. The academic meeting was then chaired by the AC Convenor, Prof. JY Gai.

First of all, JH Zhang and Prof. HM Lam delivered two presentations showcased the scientific progress and achievements of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and the SKL Centre for Soybean Research, respectively. Then, there were another two presentations on the strategic research projects namely “Crop improvement through agrobiotechnology” and “Cell Biology Research at SKL”, led by Prof. Samuel SM Sun and Prof. LW Jiang, respectively. Ample discussion sessions were provided to facilitate in-depth discussion and high-level academic exchange. To update the AC members with the innovative undertakings of the team, three of the new SKL members, Prof. TF Chan, Prof. SL Zhong and Prof. HL Hui, explicated their latest achievement in their presentations on “Application of optical mapping in plant genome research”, “Epigenome reprograming and plant development” and “The biogenesis, evolution and regulation of microRNAs in animals”, respectively.

The meeting was followed by an official luncheon, which was hosted by the Associate Vice-President of CUHK, Prof. SY Wong, who presented the souvenirs to the participating overseas AC members at the Dragon Lounge.

From the left: Prof. HM Lam (Deputy SKL Director), Prof. Anthony HC Huang, Prof. JH Zhang (SKL Director), Prof. SSM Sun (Master of SHHO College and former SKL Director), Prof. TF Fok (PVC of CUHK), Prof. JY Gai (Convenor of the AC Committee), Prof. WJ Davies, Prof. MH Gu, Prof. LZ An, Prof. ZZ Gong.