Professor Huijun Duan is a Principal Investigator within the State Key Laboratory of North China Crop Improvement and Regulation, the Deputy Director of North China Key Laboratory for Crop Germplasm Resources of the Education Ministry, and Head of Crop Genetics and Breeding Department (College of Agronomy, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China). He graduated from Hebei Agricultural University with PhD Phytopathology (2004), MSc. Agronomy (2000), and BSc. Agronomy (1989). He has over 30 years of research leadership, grant management, and capacity building experience. His research harnesses modern Plant Biotechnology techniques and superior germplasm resources for the development of maize varieties with improved yield, biotic, and abiotic stress tolerances, as well as enhanced eating and nutritional qualities. Prof. Duan has presided over numerous key government-funded national and provincial projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, among others. An industrious and astute grain- and fresh-maize breeder, he has developed 16 varieties, patented 6 inventions, and received 14 major awards in China, including the 2023 Science and Technology Progress of Hebei Province Award (1st Prize) for the project “Innovation and Application of Water Saving, Fertilizer Management, Stress Resistance, and High Yield Technology for Summer Maize in the Haihe Plain”. He is well-published, with over 100 papers in high-impact scientific journals, and is a member to several professional associations in China, including the Crop Science Society of Hebei Province, Hebei Provincial Maize Crop Variety Certification Committee, and Sanya Yazhou Bay Seed Breeding and Quality Control Association. He is passionate about capacity building; he has mentored and graduated several African post-graduate students (since 2015), and trained more than 150 African experts (since 2006) in Agricultural Biotechnology. He is devoted to the promotion of China-Africa cooperation in agricultural research and development through technology, innovation, and knowledge diffusion.
