Distinguished Research Fellow at the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center Ming-Che Shih, also Academia Sinica Secretary General, has been elected as a fellow of the International Society of Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology. The award ceremony will be held during the 12th International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology on October 17-19 at the University of Hong Kong.
　　Dr. Shih has been elected for his research on plant response to flooding stress, ranging from signal transduction to regulatory mechanisms. He has made important discoveries regarding the functions of ethylene during the submergence and post-submergence stages. His contribution to the construction of genomic resources for Taiwanese crops, which will have impact on agricultural sciences and the biotechnology industry in Taiwan, were also noted.
　　Dr. Shih received his Ph.D. degree in genetics from the University of Iowa in 1983. From 1984 to 1988, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Genetics, Harvard University. Later, from 1988 to 2009, he was Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and then Professor in the Department of Biology, University of Iowa. Between 2007 and 2009, he was also the Director of the Center for Comparative Genomics at the University of Iowa. Since 2008, Dr. Shih has been a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica and also the Director of the Center. In July 2016, he was assigned as the Secretary General of Academia Sinica.
　　For his outstanding research, Dr. Shih has received a grant for evolutionary molecular biology awarded from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the grant for Arabidopsis 2010 program supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). He is currently an editor of the Journal of Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology and Plant Biotechnology Journal.
　　The International Society of Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology (ISBAB) was established in 2006 with the mission to further awareness and provide support for research and innovation in biochemistry, biotechnology, and agricultural science through the publishing of its academic journal “Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology”, and through its annual conference, the “International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology”.