Mr. Serge Lavroff, Consul General of the Consulate General of France in Wuhan, conferred the decoration of Order of Academic Palms to Prof. LIU Yongding, May 22.

Prof. LIU Yongding, principal investigator of the Research Group of Environmental Biology of Algae at Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Commander grade of French Republic’s

The order conferring ceremony was held at IHB on May 22. IHB’s deputy director Prof. XU Xudong chaired the ceremony. IHB’s director Prof. ZHAO Jindong first delivered a congratulatory speech and expressed his sincere gratitude to the Consulate General of France in Wuhan. He said, “Prof. Liu has been engaged in the studies of environmental biology of algae for decades of years. His research group has established and developed stable and long-term cooperative relationship in the fields of cyanobacterial blooms and sand-consolidating cyanobacterial strains with French National Center for Scientific Research and University of Paul Sabatier.” Prof. Zhao hoped “IHB and the French institutions shall seek more opportunities to join hands in pushing forward the studies of life processes of inland aquatic organisms, ecological environment protection, utilization of biological resources and microalgal biofuels, water environment protection, as well as fishery sustainable development.”

Mr. YUAN Shanla, former deputy mayor of Wuhan, delivered a speech at the ceremony, May 22.

Mr. Serge Lavroff, Consul General of the Consulate General of France in Wuhan, conferred the decoration of Order of Academic Palms to Prof. Liu. Mr. Lavroff fully affirmed Prof. Liu’s contribution to the promotion of Sino-French Cooperative studies in biology of cyanobacteria, water environment, and sand-consolidating cyanobacterial strains. Prof. Liu, together with his French counterpart Dr. Alain Dauta, Mr. YUAN Shanla, former deputy mayor of Wuhan, Prof. ZHU Yaozhong, president of Wuhan Branch, Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered speeches respectively.  

Prof. Liu is the chief scientist of the project "Process of freshwater eutrophication and the mechanism of the outbreak of cyanobacterial blooms” which is supported by National Basic Research Program (also called 973 Program), group leader of the project “Technologies and engineering demonstration of water environment treatment of Inflow Rivers into Dianchi Lake” which is supported by the National High-tech R&D Program (also called 863 Program), and chief scientist of the project “Control of the cyanobacterial blooms in Dianchi Lake”. He has achieved great accomplishment in the fields of algal biology, freshwater eutrophication and ecological restoration.  

Prof. LIU Yongding interacted with Mr. Serge Lavroff (1st L), Consul General of the Consulate General of France in Wuhan, and Mr. Marc Bondiou, Councilor for scientific and technological affairs of the Consulate General of France in Wuhan.

Prof. Liu’s newly developed technologies have been demonstratively promoted to five different sandy lands or deserts which are located in the Dalad Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and is attempted to be applied in the desertified region of Middle East and Africa. So far, the artificial algal crust technologies have been applied to several desertified regions in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with a total area of 50,000 mu (1 mu=0.165 acre). Before the sand-consolidating technologies have been applied in the demonstrative areas located in Dalad Banner, the forest coverage rate is less than 15%. With the newly developed technologies, the forest coverage rate in the same region has reached more than 80%. The harmful effect of sandstorm has been effectively controlled and apparent socio-economic benefits have been derived. 

A group photo of the distinguished guests who attended the order conferring ceremony, May 22.

Since 1988, Prof. Liu has been a key member in the pilot studies of controlled ecological life support system (CELSS) in the spacecraft invented by China. As a principal investigator, he led the studies of space biology of manned spacecraft. Experiments on space biology have been performed six times in the recoverable satellites and twice in the manned spacecrafts. Prof. Liu’s experiments study the algae based bio-reactor being treated as a predominant part in CELSS. In 2011, China’s unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8 successfully completed its mission and returned to the earth. Prof. Liu designed the special microgravity experiment to prove whether a small tropical freshwater snail can survive in an algae-based life support system. This experiment has been widely reported by both domestic and international media. 

The Order of Academic Palms, founded by Napoleon in 1808, is an Order of Chivalry of France for those in the spheres of academia, culture and education. It is one of the world’s oldest orders of chivalry and also the highest honor awarded to academics, cultural and educational figures. The Order of Academic Palms comprises three grades: Commander, Officer and Knight. Prof. Liu was awarded with the highest grade, the commander decoration.