Prof. ZHANG Guojie from Zhejiang University (Credit: IHB)

On April 17th, Prof. ZHANG Guojie from Zhejiang University was invited to the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and delivered a lecture titled "Evolutionary Processes and Mechanisms of Species and Phenotypic Diversity."    

The rapid development of sequencing technology has provided great convenience for the study of comparative genomics and functional genomics. Based on his team's research, Prof. Zhang systematically introduced the composition and evolution of biodiversity, the key issues in macroevolution of biodiversity, and the mutual influence of the genome and phenotypic diversity, using birds and marsupials as examples.    

He emphasized that although some species belong to different taxonomic units, their underlying evolutionary mechanisms can be mutually informative. It is worth mentioning that this lecture is the first comprehensive summary and presentation of the team's research by Prof. Zhang since his return to China in 2022.   

Currently, Prof. Zhang holds the Zhejiang University Qiu Shi Chair Professorship and is also a Visiting Professor at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He previously served as a tenured professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen and as the deputy director of the China National GeneBank. In 2022, he joined Zhejiang University full-time to establish the Center for Life Evolutionary Research.