From July 12 to 13, the International Joint Laboratory for Health Plant Resources Development (HPRD Lab) hosted the EPB Academic Forum at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The forum invited Henrik Balslev, Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Fellow of the Linnean Society and Tenured Professor at Aarhus University, also an academic committee member of the laboratory, to deliver two thematic academic lectures, drawing a large audience of faculty and students from the institute.
With over 40 years of research in plant taxonomy and ethnobotany, Professor Balslev has published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers cited over 24,000 times, holding an H-index of 78. Eight plant species bear his name, and he serves on the editorial boards of multiple international journals. He boasts remarkable academic achievements in scholarly publishing and tropical & Southeast Asian plant resource research.
On the evening of July 12, the first lecture How to Write and Publish Scientific Papers took place in the conference room on the 4th floor of Building 4. Drawing on his experience supervising over 80 master’s and PhD students and organizing numerous international research training courses, Professor Balslev systematically covered standards for scientific writing, journal submission strategies and ways to address reviewer comments. An interactive Q&A session followed the presentation, where faculty and students raised active questions on topic selection, journal matching and other topics, sparking lively discussions.
The second lecture Ethnobotanical Research in Thailand was held on the morning of July 13 in the lecture hall on the first floor of Building 15. The professor reviewed the evolutionary trajectory of ethnobotany, and outlined a complete research framework for traditional medicinal plant studies combining field surveys and specimen verification. Drawing on his long-term fieldwork in Thailand, he shared findings on local medicinal plant surveys and bioactive compound discovery from traditional herbal medicines. He also elaborated on the pivotal role of ethnobotany in biodiversity conservation and new drug development, offering fresh perspectives for Sino-Thai collaborative research on health plant resources.
Supported by the CAS International Exchange Program and funding from HPRD Lab, the two events were well-received by young researchers and students. Attendees noted that the lectures bridged practical academic writing skills with cutting-edge research on Southeast Asian plant resources, helping them overcome writing deficiencies while broadening their horizons for cross-border ethnobotanical studies.
The EPB Academic Forum serves as a high-level platform for international academic exchange. It leverages the intellectual expertise of foreign academic committee members to boost the institute’s researchers’ comprehensive research capabilities, and further consolidates long-term Sino-Thai cooperation in health plant resource research.
July 13 Lecture Scene