WU Zheng-Yi, Professor and Director Emeritus of Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, died of illness at 1:31 a.m., June 20th, 2013 in Kunming. 

Wu Zheng-Yi was born on June 13th, 1916 in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China. He graduated from the National Tsinghua University in July 1937, majored in biology. He joined the National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming in the wartime and was involved in the establishment of re-organized Academia Sinica (i.e., Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS) in 1949. Wu Zheng-Yi was a professional research botanist and the Deputy Director of the CAS Institute of Systematic Botany in Beijing and was elected a member of the CAS Academic Division in 1955. He was appointed director of CAS Kunming Institute of Botany at Kunming, Yunnan in 1958 and became the Director Emeritus of the institute in 1983. He is an internationally well-known botanist, co-chair of the Flora of China joint editorial committee, receiver of the International COSMOS prize in 1999，and the awardee of the National Supreme Science and Technology Award of China in 2007.

Wu Zheng-Yi is an esteemed botanist who is most prestigious for his study in plant taxonomy, floristic geography and biodiversity conservation. Through his 70 or more years’ scientific career, He has made outstanding contributions in transplanting botany into China and in internationalizing Chinese botany in the botanical circle of the world. He did remarkable work on the effective conservation of plant diversity and rational utilization of plant resources in China and other parts of eastern and southeastern Asia.

Contact:

Kunming Institute of Botany

Chinese Academy of Sciences

132 Lanhei Road, Kunming

Yunnan 650201

China

Email: kibpub@mail.kib.ac.cn