In January, Professor Zhenfeng Shao, professor in the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS) at Wuhan University, visited the Oxford Biodiversity and Ecosystems Programme at the Environmental Change Institute to discuss current and future research collaborations with research staff and students.
Prof. Shao's research focuses on urban remote sensing applications with specific interest in high-resolution remote sensing and its applications from digital cities, smart cities and sponge cities. Having been named "Young and Middle-aged Science and Technology Innovation Leading Talent" and "National Excellent Science and Technology Employee" by China's Ministry of Science and Technology, as well as being selected as a "Special Professor of Wuhan University", this was an exciting and important visit for the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Programme.
The focus of Prof. Shao's visit was two-fold: furthering collaborative research on global forest resilience between Oxford and Wuhan and establishing a new collaboration to strengthen China-South Africa research avenues. Prof. Shao has always had a keen interest in mapping and monitoring the resilience of forests globally and on his visit to the University of Oxford, he met with Ecosystems Programme lead, Prof. Yadvinder Malhi, and DPhil student, Xiongjie Deng, to discuss their collaborations on the topic. Xiongjie is one of Prof. Shao's past students and a lot of Xiongjie's passion for remote sensing and tropical forests was born from his time in Prof. Shao's research group. Xiongjie's work in Oxford's Ecosystems Programme now focuses on measuring, modelling, monitoring, and forecasting spatial dynamics across tropical forests over time based on remote sensing data in conjunction with field measurements that he has collected with colleagues from the BioEO Lab. Their conversations focused on a current project on global forest resilience assessments and will lead to further collaborations in Xiongjie's research, as well as international collaborative programmes supported by the Royal Society and National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Following talks with Prof. Malhi and Xiongjie, Prof. Shao discussed new and exciting collaborations with South African researcher and Oxford's Trapnell Research Fellow in African Environments, Dr Nicola Stevens. In an ongoing effort to strengthen bilateral ties between China and South Africa, an effort has been made to explore avenues for joint cooperation in innovation, technology and sustainable development between the two countries. Prof. Shao is actively involved in this endeavour and will be leading projects to achieve its vision. To this end, Prof. Shao and Dr Stevens discussed future potential collaborations between China and South Africa, with a particular focus on student training and projects. Dr Stevens is excited about the collaboration and believes that "it offers a really exciting opportunity for students, particularly in Africa, to engage in meaningful collaboration and knowledge exchange with Chinese universities".
Professor Shao participated in the China-Africa Innovation Cooperation and Development Forum in Wuhan last November, where he had the chance to talk with South Africa's Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ms Nomalungelo Gina. Prof. Shao extended an invite to Dr Stevens for future China-Africa Innovation Cooperation and Development Forums and expressed his keen interest in having her lecture on her African ecosystems research at Wuhan University.
A major part of our research in the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Programme at the University of Oxford relies on close partnerships with our collaborators, and we always look forward to meeting and sharing a cup of tea with our research "friends". This visit, although short and sweet, was important for current research in the tropics and Africa, and leaves us looking forward to years of future research in these biodiverse regions.
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