Soybean Physiology and Genetics

Prof. Hon-Ming Lam, Professor of the School of Life Sciences, and the Director of the national-level State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology is also leading the RGC Area of Excellence Center for Genomic Studies on Plant-Environment Interaction for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security (2017-2025). For the past two decades, he embarked upon soybean genomics studies, carried out impressive work, and achieved world-class excellence in terms of research achievements and innovations. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed journal papers. His groundbreaking discoveries include the first application of whole-genome sequence analysis to reveal the genome diversity of wild soybeans (published as a cover story on Nature Genetics in 2010), setting up a novel technology platform for identification of the major causal gene for salt tolerance in soybean (published in Nature Communications in 2014), and completing the assembly of the first reference genome of a wild soybean accession (published in Nature Communications in 2019). Together with his other high-impact publications, Prof. Lam has been recognized as a prominent leader in the international soybean research arena. Besides scientific achievements, it is also exciting to see that his soybean research has gone beyond basic science. He successfully integrated the state-of-the-art technology from academics and the traditional wisdom from breeders for the development of stress-tolerant soybean cultivars and obtained official approval to release them to the farmers in NW China at no cost. His project has made a strong social and economic impact not only because of safeguarding food security and boosting economic benefits for underprivileged smallholder farms in arid and semi-arid areas but the introduction of a low-carbon green economy, scientific-industrial partnership model.