CEPAMS Co-Director is elected as a member of the US National Academy

Professor Xiaofeng Cao, Co-Director of the CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science (CEPAMS), has been elected an international member of the US National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Professor Cao works on epigenetic regulation in higher plants. Using both Arabidopsis and rice as model organisms, she studies how gene expression and plant development are regulated by histone modifications and small non-coding RNAs. She focuses particularly on the role of histone methylation in flowering time regulation in Arabidopsis and the biogenesis of small RNAs that control important rice agricultural traits.

Professor Cao has been an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2015. She is perfectly qualified as Co-Director of CEPAMS as an alumna of the John Innes Centre in the UK, current Head of the Centre for Genome Biology at the CAS Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology in Beijing and Distinguished Professor at the CAS Centre for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences in Shanghai.

Her fellow Co-Director, Professor Ray Dixon FRS, congratulated Professor Cao “Xiaofeng’s election is both well-deserved and timely. Her scientific record speaks for itself. She is truly world-leading in her a field, an inspiration to her peers and a wonderful colleague”.

Director of the John Innes Centre, Professor Dale Sanders FRS added “It is hard to overstate Xiaofeng’s contribution to the field of plant epigenetics over the last two decades. However, her contribution extends far beyond her publication record – she is a fantastic mentor to early career researchers, champion for women scientists and visionary for the UK-China bilateral relationship”.