Awarding ceremony of “Yunnan Science & Technology Prize 2013” was held on August 26 in Kunming. The ceremony was attended by top governors and officials of Yunnan province. Among the prize winners, Prof. Yu Diqiu and Prof. Yang Darong of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) were honored with the second prize of Yunnan provincial Natural Science Awards.

In total, 181 achievements were awarded. They included one outstanding contribution award, 24 Natural Science Awards, 10 Technology Invention Awards, and 146 Science & Technology Progress Awards respectively.

Prof. Yu Diqiu and his team of XTBG were honored with the second prize of Yunnan Provincial Natural Science Award for accomplishing “Studies on molecular mechanism underlying plant stress resistance by WRKY gene family”. They made breakthroughs and got 20 research papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. Yang Darong and his team of XTBG were honored with the second prize of Yunnan Provincial Natural Science Award for accomplishing “Studies on co-evolution of figs and fig wasps in Southwest China”. By conducting the project, they got their research results published in Functional Ecology, Journal of Chemical Ecology, Ecological Entomology, Symbiosis, Biotropica, Evolutionary Ecology Research, Journal of Tropical Ecology.

Prize winners Yang Darong (left) and Yu Diqu (right)