On June 23rd, Dr. Hans Beeckman from Royal Central African Museum of Belgium, head of the wood biology research team and director of the Wood Specimen Laboratory, gave an online academic lecture with the topic "Xylaria in Times of Wood Scarcity: Mines of Data on Forests, Trees and Wood". More than 30 researchers and graduate students of Research Institute of Wood Industry participated the lecture online and offline.

Dr. Hans Beckman’s lecture was from 3 perspectives of biodiversity, wood specimens laboratory and digital wood specimens and combined with hot spots of the discipline such as current forest carbon sink, tropical forest conservation and data-driven specimen. He specifically introduced the contribution of the wood information to biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and other multidisciplinary research, the scientific value of different types of wood specimens, as well as the opportunities and challenges of digital wood specimens.

Dr. Hans Beeckman is also a member of the Belgian National Scientific Committee on Endangered Species and the coordinator of the " Wood collections and databases " Working Party (5.16.01) of International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). He has been committed to wood biology and wood specimens for a long time and has published more than 380 academic papers in Nature, Science, PNAS and Global Change Biology. The Wood Specimen Laboratory of Royal Central African Museum of Belgium in his charge is now holding over 80,000 wood specimens and about 13,000 species, taking the lead in the world. (Research Institute of Wood Industry / Lu Yang)