Prof. Michael Wingfield was guiding diagnose of eucalypt diseases at eucalypt plantations in Guangdong Province (3rd from left)
Michael Wingfield
Prof. Michael Wingfield, a South African forest expert and an international cooperation partner recommended by CAF, received the 2017 Chinese Government Friendship Award.
Prof. Michael Wingfield, born in April 1954, is from South Africa. He is the President of IUFRO, academician of South African Institute of Forestry, Director of Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, and honorary research fellow of CAF. Prof. Wingfield leads the world’s largest professional group in forest health, with nearly 200 research fellows and graduates from more than 30 countries and regions, including China. Up till now, Prof. Wingfield has advised 99 doctoral students and 71 master students, and published 90 book chapters, 12 books, and 920 SCI articles on journals including Science, one of the world’s most authoritative academic journals. Due to his world-stunning achievements in forest pests and diseases, he received the honorary doctoral degree from the University of British Colombia and North Carolina State University, and was appointed as the long-term advisor by research institutes and forest companies of South Africa and other countries. During the past 20 years, Prof. Michael Wingfield has maintained close exchanges with researchers from different organizations and institutes, including CAF, Chinese Society of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Heilongjiang Academy of Forestry, Yunnan University and South China Agricultural University. FABI has received more than 200 person times from China, in particular, China’s forest field, for visits and academic exchanges. Prof. Michael Wingfield has paid nearly 30 visits to China. His footprints has covered northeastern and southern China, especially Heilongjiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Yunnan and Hainan. Prof. Michael Wingfield has been engaged in in-depth cooperation with several research institutes of China, in particular, CAF. He has completed many national and international science and technology cooperation projects, and launched CFTPP (CERC-FABI Tree Protection Co-operation Programme) between China Eucalypt Research Center and FABI of South Africa, to promote bilateral sustainable and in-depth research on forest health. Within these projects, he collaborated with Chinese scholars to publish 106 papers, improving China’s forest pathology research. Prof. Michael Wingfield advised a group of talents in forest pathology for China. Two of them were supported by Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of National Natural Science Foundation of China, and one of them was selected as the national candidate of the Millions of Talents Project. In 2014, Prof. Michael Wingfield was elected as the President of IUFRO. He took promoting cooperation between IUFRO and China’s forest research institutes as one of the major missions during his term. He supported IUFRO Eucalypt Conference and IUFRO Regional Congress for Asia and Oceania to be hosted by China. Prof. Michael Wingfield has played an important role in promoting China’s forest research to the world-class level.
By now, 14 international cooperation partners of CAF have received Chinese Government Friendship Awards. (Words by Li Xuejiao, Division of International Cooperation of CAF)
