Recently, Deng Zixin, Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Wuhan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been elected as the first chairman of The Globe Industrial Microbiology Society.
International industrial microbiology disciplines are developing rapidly, becoming more interdisciplinary than ever before, penetrating different walks of life, including industry, agriculture, medicine and so on. Such development continuously updates people’s understanding of the fundamental principles of the life sciences and the tremendous potential of the biological industry in the future.
In order to follow the progress of the discipline and inject new impetus to its development, the Global Industrial Microbiology Society (GIM) was officially established after two years of repeated suggestions and discussions by globally renowned scientists in this field. 34 scientists from Asia, Europe, America and Oceania were elected as members of the international expert committee, including Academician Zhao Guoping, Academician Deng Zixin, Professor Zhang Lixin and Professor Sun Yuhui from China's microbiology circle. In addition, Deng Zixin was elected as the new chairman of the current term and Sun Yuhui as the secretary general.
academician Deng Zixin
The Global Society for Industrial Microbiology, formerly the International Committee for Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms (GIM-IC), is an unofficial organization of academic leaders consisting of leading experts in the fundamentals and applications of industrial microbiology from dozens of countries around the world. As a central expression of the organization's international cohesion, the International Committee's 14 periodic Global International Events (GIMs) have become an influential academic brand since its inception in 1970. With the change in organizational form and structure, the number of elected members of the international expert committee has grown from 21 to 34, following nominations of members from previous sessions of the Committee and taking into account the relative balance between the various continents and their nationalities.
Born in March 1957 in Fangxian County, Hubei Province, Deng Zixin graduated from Huazhong Agricultural University in 1982 and received a Ph.D. degree from the University of East England in 1988.
Deng Zixin’s main area of expertise is biochemistry and molecular biology research on the genetics of actinomycetes and the biosynthesis of antibiotics. He has made outstanding contributions to the molecular biology of plasmids and phages of Streptomyces, DNA replication regulation, restriction and modification system, microbial metabolic pathway, metabolic engineering and innovation of bio-agricultural (medical) drugs, etc. In particular, he discovered sulfur modification of the DNA of numerous bacteria, which is recognized as the first physiological modification found on DNA skeleton, pioneering a new scientific field of DNA sulfur modification.
Deng Zixin was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005, to the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2006 and academician of the American Academy of Microbiology. He was also awarded the National Labor Medal in 2008 and selected as the National Outstanding Worker in 2010. Currently, he is the Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Wuhan University and the President of the Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology.
Rewritten by: Qin Zichang
Edited by: Cao Siyi, Sylvia and Hu Sijia
