Recently, the Ministry of Education announced the results of the Yushan Scholar Program, and the College of Bioresources and Agriculture at National Taiwan University (NTU) has achieved remarkable success.
The Yushan Scholar Program, hosted by the Ministry of Education, aims to assist universities in Taiwan in attracting top international talents by providing internationally competitive salaries to attract outstanding scholars to teach in Taiwan. In this year's selection, two teachers have set a record for the College of Bioresources and Agriculture at NTU. They are Dr. Shu-Ping Tseng and Dr. Po-An Lin from the Department of Entomology.
Fig.1 The award-winning teachers, (left) Dr. Shu-Ping Tseng and (right) Dr. Po-An Lin.
Dr. Tseng and Dr. Lin are new assistant professors in the Department of Entomology at National Taiwan University starting from August 1st, 2022. Dr. Tseng has They published a total of papers in SCI journals over the past years. These papers have been published in top international journals .
Dr. Tseng’s expertise lies in the fields of evolutionary genetics, invasive biology, and urban entomology. Climate change poses significant threats to both the economy and biodiversity, while also potentially creating better opportunities for some invasive species' colonization. This increases the complexity of managing invasive species and presents more challenges for countries to address.
Dr. Tseng will utilize molecular genetics as a tool and combine it with behavioral ecology experiments to investigate the interactive effects of invasive ants and climate change. The aim is to assess potential management risks and develop effective prevention and control strategies in the future based on research findings. This approach aims to reduce environmental impacts and minimize potential losses that may occur in the future.
Fig.2 One of the top 100 invasive species, the red imported fire ants, causes significant economic and biodiversity losses every year.
Dr. Lin is an expert in chemical ecology, conducting research on the physiological, ecological, and evolutionary aspects of plant-insect interactions. Additionally, the focus is on how abiotic factors influence the interactions between plants and insects. Herbivorous insects play a crucial role in terrestrial ecosystems by affecting the ecosystem through their interactions with plants. In agricultural systems, they are pests that attack crops. Climate change has made the relationship between plants and insects even more challenging to predict, which increases the need to better understand these interactions to prevent unwanted outcome.
Studying the interactions between the environment, insects, and plants not only deepens our understanding of these organisms around us but also has practical applications. Therefore, such research holds significant importance in the fields of global plant protection and sustainable development.
Fig. 3 The influence of water on plant defense strategies against insect herbivores. (DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erac481)。