Welcome to the College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University.

College of Life Sciences has a history traced back to the former Department of Agricultural Biology founded in 1982. It was re-organized in 1996 and renamed in 2001 with the expansion of students’ enrollment and the need of development. Taking biological sciences at its core and overlapping closely with agricultural sciences, the college is committed to develop into a pattern of research and education with dominance in basic and applied basic research.  

The college consists of two departments, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and Department of Plant Sciences. Multiple levels and forms of personal training have been set up in the college, providing a continuous education system for undergraduate students, postgraduate students and post-doctors. The college has currently two majors of biological science and biotechnology, one National Teaching Base for Biology (Dingying Innovative Class in Plant Sciences) and one International Class of Biological Sciences (Cooperative Programme for Bachelor of Science Degree by South China Agricultural University and University College Dublin). Biotechnology in the college is certificated as Guangdong provincial excellent major and National characteristic major. The programme for Ph. D. degree is a national first-level discipline of biology, in addition to two second-level disciplines of Botany and Biochemistry & Molecular biology for Ph. D. degree, and three second-level disciplines of Botany, Biochemistry & Molecular biology and Biophysics for master degree. The college also possesses key disciplines of biology in Guangdong Province and mobile postdoctoral station of biology.

The college owns various scientific research platforms, including the State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources (Prof. Yaoguang Liu as the vice director), the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Protein Function and Regulation in Agricultural Organisms, the Guangdong Provincial Veterinary Herbal Medicine and Nature Pharmaceutical Engineering Technology Research Center, the Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genes and Biotechnology in the Department of Education of Guangdong Province, and the Ministry of Agriculture Transgenic Plants with Microbial Environmental Safety Supervision and Testing Center (Guangzhou). The college has three teaching centers, which are the National Experimental Teaching Center of Plant Biology, the Experimental Teaching Center of Modern Biotechnology in the Department of Education of Guangdong Province, and School-Level Experimental Teaching Center for undergraduate students. Nine extramural teaching and research bases, as well as one campus-based experimental teaching base of biotechnology, have been established.

The college has abundant qualified teachers, with 84 faculty and staff members, including 72 teachers or researchers and 12 supporting staff. A total of 53 teachers are in senior positions, among which 25 are professors or senior researchers. Some fellows are awarded as National Outstanding Young Scientists of China, Young and Mid-aged Outstanding Contribution Expert by Agricultural Ministry, and Candidate for Ten Million New Century State Class Persons of National Talents Engineering of Ministry of Personnel of China. Some are selected talents by New Century Training Program Foundation for the Talents by the Ministry of Education, Excellent Young Teachers Program of Ministry of Education, Shenglong Programme of Ministry of Agriculture, and Thousand Hundred Ten Project of Guangdong Province. Some fellows have received National May Day Labor Medalist and Youth Day Medalist. Three specialists enjoy the State Council Special Allowance.

The college demonstrates vibrant academic atmosphere and remarkable scientific research output. During the period of Eleven Five Year, a total of 163 research projects were approved for the college, with the value of fund totaling 88 million. These projects include 34 grants by National Development and Innovation Committee, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Education, 65 by National Science Foundation of China, 53 at provincial and ministerial-level as well as four at Bureau-level. More than 500 articles have been published in international academic journals, such as Nature Genetics, Plant Cell, PNAS, Cell Research, Molecular Cell Proteomics, Nucleic Acid Research, Chemistry & Biology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Experimental Botany, mBio, etc., among which more than 100 are indexed by SCI. Exceeding 20 projects received the provincial scientific and technological awards and more than 40 inventions were endorsed, displaying successful and fruitful research outputs.  

Currently, about 1229 full-time students register in the college for various programs, including 966 undergraduate students, 214 mater students, and 49 Ph.D. candidates. The college students promote adherently Dingying spirit from South China Agricultural University with assiduous study and outstanding achievements. The Ph. D. thesis by Zhonghua Wang won National Hundred Excellent PhD thesis in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Yaoguang Liu. A variety of scientific and technological activities are hold in the college. Fascinating achievements are attained in various disciplinary competitions, including one first prize in the 11th National Challenge Cup in 2009, one third prize in the 12th National Challenge Cup in 2011, one first prize in National Mathematical Contest in Modeling in 2008, one first prize and two second prize in the Biochemical Experiments Contest for College Student in Guangdong in 2013. The distinctive Biochemical Experiments Contest for College Student, originally the brand competition in our college, has been incorporated into the provincial-level competition. Exceeding one thousand undergraduate students from more than 40 universities and 350 teams attend this competition each year. Most recently, our undergraduate students, with organization and participation for the first time, won gold medal in International Genetically Engineering Machine (iGEM) of Asia region that was hold in the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013.

We believe that the scale, scope and quality of our college will be further promoted to increase its reputation in national and international scientific community, with persistent pursue of excellent teaching, learning, research and knowledge transfer activities by leveraging our strengths and intellectual traditions.