Professor Zhang Jianhua is currently the Associate Vice-President (Global Research Collaboration) and Chair Professor of Plant Biology at Hong Kong Baptist University. He served as Dean of Science at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2017-2020 and Director of State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012-2017.
An internationally renowned scholar and an expert in the areas of plant stress physiology and water-saving cultivation of field crops, Professor Zhang was profiled by prestigious scientific journal Nature as one of the “Five crop researchers who could change the world” in December 2008 for his research focusing primarily on water-saving irrigation in China.
Professor Zhang’s achievements have been widely recognized through several awards and recognitions. He was awarded with State Natural Science Award (twice) and the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award from the State Council of China. He was ranked as Best Plant Science and Agronomy Scientists (World ranking 26, National ranking for China 4) by Research.com in 2021 and listed as Highly Cited Researcher-2021 and 2022 by Clarivate. He has published extensively with citations over 29,000 times and h-index at 96. Currently he serves as Associate Editor for a number of top plant science and agriculture journals such as Plant Physiology, Journal of Experimental Botany, Food and Energy Security and Crop Journal.
Professor Zhang received President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work from Hong Kong Baptist University in 2009 and was awarded with Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by Lancaster University in 2014.
