On November 29, Beijing Forestry University held an appointment ceremony for Professor Brent Euan Clothier, who is the President of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The President of the university, An Lizhe, attended the ceremony and presented Professor Clothier with a letter of appointment. The Vice President of the university, Zhang Zhiqiang, presided over the ceremony, and Hu Wei, a Senior Research Fellow of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Botany and Food, also attended.

An Lizhe delivered a speech and gave a warm reception to Professor Closier. He pointed out that after 70-odd years' development, BFU has built a complete disciplinary system of wetland, desert, forest, grassland and human ecosystem to support the construction of ecological civilization, and a national strategic scientific and technological force to serve the ecological civilization construction. BFU has jointly built two national key laboratories for forest tree genetics and breeding and efficient production of forest tree resources. In the future, it will establish the world's largest national forest and grass seed bank in Xiong'an Campus.Major breakthroughs have been made in the fields of forestry, grass, flowers, ecological science and technology, and major achievements have been made in the germplasm innovation of forest and flower species, such as poplars, magnolias, plum blossoms, peonies, chrysanthemums, lagerstroemia, and lilies. These major scientific research achievements and key technological breakthroughs have contributed significantly to accelerating the building of a beautiful China.

An Lizhe stressed that the important opportunity of "One University and Two Campus" has opened a new chapter of high-quality development of BFU where the appointment of Professor Closier is a milestone for the cause, who will help a lot for the development of BFU's disciplines, platform construction, talent training, international exchanges and cooperation, etc. It is hoped that Professor Clothier can give full play to his leading advantages and global academic influence in scientific research, high-caliber personnel and high-level journals, enhancing first-class discipline of forestry, increasing its influence at home and abroad, and jointly carrying out more innovative and breakthrough research with BFU, so that we can provide more scientific and technological support for solving global ecological and environmental problems and seeking a common path to the global ecological civilization.

At the meeting, An Lizhe awarded Professor Brent Euan Closier the appointment letter as a member of the Development Strategy Advisory Committee of BFU and a member of the editorial Board of the journal Forest Ecosystems.

Zhang Zhiqiang introduced the employment of Professor Closier, highlighting that BFU has implemented a series of measures to strengthen high-level talent cultivation and achieve remarkable results in talent work. These measures include the establishment of the "5·5 project" talent cultivation system, improvements in talent introduction policies, broadening of talent introduction channels, and optimization of talent development mechanisms. As the first foreign strategic scientist appointed by BFU following the innovation of its talent system mechanism, Professor Closier is expected to play a crucial role in promoting the high-quality development of BFU's talent work and serve as a model for future talent cultivation efforts.

Professor Clothier thanked BFU for its warm welcome and sincere invitation, and said that he has carried out a lot of teaching and research cooperation with BFU over the years, and has made great achievements together. In the future, he will take this appointment as an opportunity to carry out deeper cooperations in forestry discipline, talent training, scientific research, platform construction and other aspects.

On behalf of the College of Forestry, the College welcomed Professor Closier and declared that the college will give all-round support for him. Heads of relevant departments of BFU, leaders of the College of Forestry and  representative teachers attended the ceremony.



It is reported that Professor Brent Euan Clothier is the world's top expert in agricultural soil and water engineering, the chief scientist of the New Zealand Plant and Food Research Institute, and he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1994, a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2019, and the President of the Royal Society of New Zealand in July 2021. He has long been engaged in the research and practice in irrigation science, sustainable land use and regional water resources management and sustainable development.