The 11th Annual Conference of IAWA (International Association of Wood Anatomists)-China Group, hosted by the IAWA-China Group and co-organized by the Southwest Forestry University and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was held at the Xishuangbanna from November 15th to 17th, 2024. The theme of the conference was "Enabling Development of Wood Anatomy with New-Quality Productivity". Professor Fanyuan Gan of XTBG of CAS, Professor Jun Li of the Southwest Forestry University, Professor Yafang Yin, Executive Secretary of IAWA and Professor Bin Xu, Chair of IAWA-China Group delivered opening speeches respectively. Professor Guanben Du of the Southwest Forestry University, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, provided a speech via video.
Group Photo of the 11th IAWA-China Group Annual Conference
More than 180 participants from 37 organizations attended the conference. Five keynote speakers from three countries gave invited lectures at the main venue. Professor Yafang Yin from the Research Institute of Wood Industry, the Chinese Academy of Forestry gave an invited lecture titled "Concept of Reconstituting Xylarium Resources in China". Professor Yoon Soo Sim from the Chonnam National University Korea gave an invited lecture titled "What Overlooked by Wood Anatomists in Studies on Wood Cultural Heritages". Professor Xinqiang He from Peking University gave an invited lecture titled "Phytohormone Interactions in Regulation of the Secondary Vascular Tissue Pattern Formation in Populus ". Professor Tomoyuki Fujii from the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute of Japan gave an invited lecture titled "Mogami Tokunai’s Wood Collection and Kohara Jiro’s Microscopic Slides". Professor Jian Qiu from Southwest Forestry University gave an invited lecture titled "Eyewood for Wood Identification and Team Work". A total of 57 speakers provided session speeches on research directions such as the development of wood anatomy at domestic and abroad species, wood biology, dendrochronology, identification and protection of archaeological wooden relics, application of multidisciplinary integration in wood anatomy, structure and utilization of bamboo and rattans, construction of a digital platform for wood, and strategic significance of the "dual carbon" initiative.
Keynote presentations of the 11th IAWA-China Group Annual Conference
Oral presentations and discussions of the 11th IAWA-China Group Annual Conference
Thirteen Excellent Presentation Awards (EPA), three Outstanding Poster Awards and six Wood Microscopy Competition Awards were awarded by the IAWA-China Group Committee. The Southwest Forestry University and XTBG of CAS fully exerted their respective advantages in the fields of wood and botanical science, and successfully built an academic exchange platform for experts and scholars in the field of wood anatomy in China and even different countries.
IAWA-China Group has insisted on organization of an annual conference every year since it was initially established in 2014, and the series of conferences has developed into an important academic event in the field of wood anatomy in the world.
The 12th Annual Conference of IAWA-China Group will be organized by the Northeast Forestry University in 2025 in Heilongjiang Province, China.
Jingran Gao and Jian Qiu, China
