ASPB members share a common goal of promoting the growth, development, and outreach of plant biology as a pure and applied science. This column features some of the dedicated and innovative members of ASPB who believe that membership in our Society is crucial to the future of plant biology. If you are interested in contributing to this feature, please contact ASPB Membership

Name: Han Xiao
Title: PhD, Principal Investigator
Place of Work or School: Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Research Area: Plant Development
Member Since: 2005

1. Has being a member of ASPB helped you in your career? If so, how?
I have attended many excellent meetings hosted by ASPB, which provided great opportunities for exchanging scientific ideas and networking. ASPB also provides useful information online that helps me stay up-to-date with ongoing plant research activities.

2. Why has being a member of ASPB been important to you?
Many times I feel ASPB is my “home town,” where I can find lots of things I need, from great networking with plant biologists around the world to current plant research work.

3. Was someone instrumental in getting you to join ASPB?
Esther van der Knaap, my postdoc adviser at the Ohio State University.

4. What would you tell nonmembers to encourage them to join?
It is important to join active scientific societies if you want to become an active researcher. ASPB is the right society for plant biologists around the world.

5. Have you found a job or hired anyone using ASPB job postings or networking at the annual meeting?
When I decided to do a postdoc outside my home country, ASPB’s website was the first place I looked. I also will use this great feature to recruit talented people to join our research program.

6. Do you still read print journals? If so, where do you usually read them: work, home, library, in the car, on the bus, or somewhere else?
In the electronic era, it is far more convenient to read papers online. Occasionally, I read printed journals at home or in my office.

7. Have there been any issues in plant biology in which you thought ASPB should be involved or that led you to consider becoming active in the governance of the Society?
ASPB could be more involved in issues such as global warming and biofuel and their impact on food security.

8. What do you see as the most important role for scientific societies such as ASPB?
Scientific societies can provide many services to meet our demand for scientific knowledge. The most important one would be providing a platform with rich resources that is freely accessible to everyone around the world, just like APSB is providing a variety of resources for education and teaching.

9. What could ASPB do better?
ASPB could provide more resources to plant researchers in developing countries.

10. What advice would you give to a plant scientist just starting out?
Let your enthusiasm be the driving force behind your research work.

11. What do you think is the most important discovery in plant biology over the past year and why?
The greatest discovery in 2009, I would think, is the breakthrough in identification of ABA receptors. ABA receptors have attracted much attention in the field because of the hormone’s importance in agriculture. In the past year, several papers described the identification of ABA receptors and their crystal structures with bound ABA. Those studies revealed the complicated nature of plant development and response to environments by phytohormone ABA.

12. What do you think is the next “big thing” in plant biology?
The next “big thing” in plant biology I would expect is lab bench tools for integrating the massive information generated from various omics studies and then providing testable models/networks.

13. What do you still have left to learn?
As the Chinese proverb says, “You are never too old to learn.” There are lots of fascinating things about plants I want to know.