Rate My Professor Jianmin Wan

Professor Jianmin Wan is a leading rice molecular geneticist and breeder affiliated with Nanjing Agricultural University. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1982 and Master’s degree in 1985 from Nanjing Agricultural University, followed by a PhD from Kyoto University in Japan in 1995. He served as a Senior Research staff member at the Agricultural Research Center of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 1997 to 2001. At Nanjing Agricultural University, he held the position of Dean of the Agronomy Department. He later served as Director General of the Institute of Crop Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and as Vice President of CAAS. In 2015, he was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was recognized as a Cheung Kong Scholar by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 1999.

Professor Wan’s research specializes in rice germplasm mining, molecular characterization, and molecular breeding. He has cloned 65 important rice genes, released 22 cultivars, and holds 62 invention patents. He has authored or co-authored more than 280 scientific papers in journals including Science, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, and The Plant Cell, as well as three books. His contributions include elucidating the genetic bases of heterosis in indica-japonica rice hybrids for improved quality, resistance, and yield. Key awards include the First Award of National Science and Technology Progress in 2010, the National Technology Invention Award in 2014, and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Achievement Award in 2012. He has led national programs in crop molecular breeding and served as President of the Crop Science Society of China and the Chinese Society of Agricultural Biotechnology. He leads the Rice Genetics and Breeding team at Nanjing Agricultural University, with research fields including application of heterosis between indica and japonica, molecular bases of rice quality and resistance, and direct seeding traits.