Yu Jingquan, a renowned agriculture scientist who was recently elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, returned to his hometown of Yiwu, a county-level city in East China's Zhejiang province, on Nov 21.

In particular, Yu visited his alma mater, Yiting High School, and he was invited to give a speech to young students there.

Yu is currently a professor at the College of Agriculture & Biotechnology at Zhejiang University. He has also been director of the Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plants Growth, Development, and Quality Improvement, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, since 2003.

Yu's research interests include: the formation law of continuous cropping obstacles and its prevention and control technology; the photoprotective mechanism and photosynthesis regulation of vegetable crops; the role of plant ROS signaling in stress resistance and its molecular mechanism; as well as the degradation pathways and regulation mechanisms of pesticide residues in vegetables.

Yu is a winner of both the National Natural Science Award, as well as the Science and Technology Advancement Award. He has also been a Cheung Kong Scholar since 2007.

Yu was born in Yuzhai village, Choujiang sub-district, Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province in 1963. He enrolled at Yiting High School in 1976. Yu recalled that every day he walked for over an hour from his home village to the school and preserved vegetables made up the bulk of his three meals.

In 1979, Yu began university and opted to major in horticulture. In 1994, Yu obtained a doctorate degree in bioresource chemistry at Tottori University in Japan. He turned down a lucrative job offering a 300,000-plus-yen, which was equivalent to 30,000 yuan then, monthly salary in Japan to return to China in 1995 out of patriotism, where he earned a mere 400 yuan per month as a university lecturer.

The highest title of honor for a scientist in China is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Yu's huge success is due to his persistent industriousness for decades. According to Yu's wife, Ying Weihua, Yu always returns to the laboratory right after having dinner at home. Yu's colleague Zhang Mingfang, another professor at the College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, said that Yu is extremely hardworking in the frontier research of vegetables and is often the last researcher to leave the laboratory building at night.

Yu Jingquan gives a speech in front of young students at Yiting High School. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Yu Jingquan studies vegetables in a laboratory. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]