Peking University, April 17, 2018: On April 16 (local time), the Ecological Society of America announced the recipient of the Whittaker Distinguished Ecologist Award. Academician Fang Jingyun from PKU College of Urban and Environmental Sciences won this honor for his “pivotal roles in the advancement of ecology, in informing national and international policy, and in building a scientific community of ecologists in China” (https://www.esa.org/esa/ecological-society-of-america-announces-2019-award-recipients/).
Fang Jingyun
Founded in 1915, the American Ecological society is the largest and most influential society in the field of ecology. As one of the most influential international awards in the field of ecology, the Whittaker Distinguished Ecologist Award was established by the American Ecological Society in honor of the world-renowned ecologist Robert Harding Whittaker. Every year, only one non-American ecologist who have made outstanding contributions to ecology can win the award. This is the first time that a Chinese scientist has won the important award.
According to the committee, Fang Jingyun’s body of work “advances numerous concepts that Whittaker pioneered, and also establishes new standards of scientific rigor that were impossible in Whittaker’s time”. Fang Jingyun has made outstanding achievements in the research work of global change ecology, vegetation ecology, biodiversity and ecological remote sensing, etc. Including 17 papers in Science, Nature and PNAS, he has published more than 220 international papers which have been cited over 35,000 times. Fang Jingyun initiated the systematical study of the carbon cycle in China's terrestrial ecosystem, including the carbon storage and changes of China's terrestrial ecosystem, and constructed the first national scale framework of China's terrestrial carbon cycle. He has developed the research method of large-scale vegetation dynamics and enriched the theory of regional vegetation pattern and dynamic change. Fang Jingyun also played an important role in evaluating the CO2 emission trend of China and other major countries in the world, as well as analyzing some fundamental climate change issues, which provided a scientific basis for the Chinese government to deal with climate negotiations.
Apart from ecology researches, Fang Jingyun also pays much attention to ecological issues in social development. Through participation in science and technology policy advisory, government decision-making and discipline construction, he has done a great deal of work in climate change negotiations, grassland sustainable development, ecological civilization construction, etc. He, along with his colleagues, puts forward the theory of "eco-animal husbandry", which has become a widely applied agricultural policy in China and an important part of agricultural supply-side structural reform.
Written by: Wang Yupin
Edited by: Huang Yadan
