TheDepartment of Pomology in SCAU, one of the oldest disciplines of pomology inChina, was established in 1923. The department was approved to award master’sdegrees in 1981, and to award PhD degrees in 1996. In 1999, the postdoctoralresearch workstation was set up. In 2000, the department was awarded the keydiscipline of Guangdong province, and was rated as excellent level in theevaluation of Guangdong provincial key discipline in 2005. In 2006, thedepartment was awarded the national key discipline.
Afterseveral years of construction and development, the Department of Pomology hasalready established a high quality teaching staff with reasonable structure andsustainable ability, and consists mainly of the young and middle-aged academicbackbone teachers. The faculty number of the department is 21, including 12professors and 7 associate professors. Our department focuses on satisfying theneeds of national and regional fruit tree industrialization development,keeping up with the international frontier hotspots, and solving the scientificand technical problems in the fruit tree industrial of the South China region.The research areas of the department involve different fields includingphysiology and molecular biology of fruit trees, collection and innovation ofgermplasm resources, new variety breeding, reproductive biology, physiologicalecology, and key technology of fruit standardized safety production. In recent5 years, the department has undertaken more than 40 research projects,including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 948 projects of theMinistry of Agriculture, Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in thePublic Interest, the National Key Technology R&D Program and so on.
TheDepartment of Pomology possesses the teaching and research base integratingresearch & development, teaching, demonstration and extension, which havealready become the training base for high level talent of pomology. Thedepartment makes great contribution for the development of fruit tree industryand the cultivation of the research personnel.
Theteachers of our department actively organize and participate in the academiccommunication, and have established the academic exchange relationships withmany countries and regions, including America, Japan, the United Kingdom,Italy, Australia, Romania, Poland, Israel, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil,Pakistan, Hongkong and Taiwan. The department systematically sends teachers togo abroad for further study, investigation and cooperative research, and alsoinvites experts and scholars to give lectures in our college.