Great French-Taiwanese Scientific Prize is a prize supported by National Science Council, Taiwan and French Academy Institute, France. Starting from 1999, they set a certain research area each year and select a group of two scientists to honor their excellent achievements in promoting the scientific collaboration, mutual exchange and young scholar training.
The winners this year are Dr. Yue-ie Hsing, Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica and Professor Michel Delseny, University of Perpingnan/CNRS, France. Prof. Delseny and Dr. Hsing have started their long-term friendship since 20 years ago. They got acquainted with each other because they both worked on seed science research. They then accelerated the rice sequencing project and rice functional genomics research in both countries, exchange young scientists/scholars between two countries, organized bilateral meetings, and so on. Together, they published more than 30 papers in high-level journals. Their efforts also serve as an important foundation for building an extensive scientific network that fosters more collaborative and training effort among other scientists.
The major scientific accomplishment resulted from collaborations between Prof. Delseny and Dr. Hsing was on rice genomics and functional genomics. The tight links between Genoscope in France and ASPGC (Academia Sinica Plant Genome Center) in Academia Sinica were a significant part of the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, leading to the sequencing of the complete genome of the first crop plant. This was a laudable effort in catapulting plant and agricultural sciences in both France and Taiwan to the forefront of modern genomics to about the same level of human medicine. This breakthrough also opened the door for the follow-up projects with even higher impact: 1) genome annotation effort for discoveries of novel genes, and 2) functional genomics studies of gene functions. Indeed, rice T-DNA insertion mutant populations were generated in both France and Taiwan, and these projects have fostered more collaborations locally as well as between two countries.
Another intriguing accomplishment between Prof. Delseny and Dr. Hsing was the analysis of a group of unique seed Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) proteins. These LEA proteins are present in large quantities in seeds and they appear to be key in desiccation tolerance in seeds. They have analyzed the structure and potential functions of many of these LEA proteins and their genes, and published 23 papers on this field.
Many workshops/symposia on plant research have been organized by them and were held in both countries with the purpose of training and fostering more collaboration. These activities, together with frequent visits to each other’s lab, have allowed young scientists to be exposed to refreshing and stimulating research environment and get acquainted with fellow scientists sharing research results and ideas. Training of young scientists has been a key activity in this France/Taiwan collaborative effort. A good number of young scientists have benefited from these programs – they received training, published many high-level papers and became independent scientists.
Overall, Prof. Delseny and Dr. Hsing have contributed significantly to the change of landscape in plant sciences in both France and Taiwan through their collaborative research and training efforts. Their influence has changed the research communities in their field of expertise in both countries, becoming more interactive and collaborative.
