Plant Cell EIC Sabeeha Merchant meets with Chinese plant scientists

Sabeeha Merchant, Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell, recently spent a week in China meeting with Chinese scientists at SIPPE  (Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology) and FAFU (Fujian Agriculturlal and Forstry University) to learn about their research. She emphasized the power of technology on advancing discoveries in plant biology, from spectroscopies to genomics, and she also presented a separate lecture in Shanghai about publishing in The Plant Cell. Her host, Hongtao Liu, is a Principal Investigator of the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Recognizing the prominance and continued growth of plant science in China, Sabeeha encouraged scientists in China to continue to submit their best work to The Plant Cell, noting that Chinese and Chinese-born scientists are well represented on the Plant Cell editorial board (http://plantcelledboard.weebly.com/).

Sabeeha is looking forward to her next visit, perhaps to Wuhan in 2018. “I am impressed with the investment in basic research in plant biology, which supports top quality facilities and recruits the best investigators. The enthusiasm, intellect and commitment of the students, whom we seek to cultivate as authors, speaks to the long term sustainability of the research enterprise.”