Professor Liu Hongtao

Distinguished Professor, Ph.D. Supervisor

College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University

Professor Hongtao Liu is a distinguished researcher in plant light signal transduction. She has received funding and recognition from prestigious programs, including the National Key R&D Program of China, NSFC’s “Outstanding Young Scientists Fund,” “Excellent Young Scientists Fund,” “Key Program,” and “Original Exploration.” She has also been honored as a leading talent in scientific and technological innovation under the National “Ten Thousand Talents Plan,” a youth innovation leader under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s “Promotion Plan,” and a recipient of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ “Hundred Talents Plan,” among others.

Professor Liu has focused on plant light signal transduction for years, uncovering the molecular mechanisms of how light and temperature collaboratively regulate plant development, and revealing the pathways by which plants adapt to UV-B level changes while coordinating growth and stress responses. She pioneered a new research direction on green light signal regulation of plant development. Her research has been published as a corresponding author in leading journals such as Cell, Cell Host & Microbe, Developmental Cell, Nature Plants, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, EMBO Journal, PNAS, and The Plant Cell. Many of her findings have been highlighted in editorial reviews by journals like Developmental Cell, Nature Plants, NSMB, and The Plant Cell, with several papers recognized as ESI Highly Cited Papers.

Professor Liu serves as the President of the Women Scientists Branch of the Chinese Society of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology and is an editorial board member of journals such as The Plant Cell, Current Biology, PNAS, Science China Life Sciences, JIPB, Plant Communications, and aBiotech.

Awards

•17th China Young Female Scientist Award (2022)

•Outstanding Contribution Award in Photobiology, Sino-Agri Science & Technology Co. (2020)

•16th China Youth Science and Technology Award (2020)

•Asia and Oceania Society for Photobiology Young Scientist Award (2019)

•CAS “Hundred Talents Plan” Excellence Award (2016)

•Second Prize, Hebei Science and Technology Award (2016, 3rd contributor)

•Women’s Young Investigator Travel Award, ASPB (2014)

•Parvin Foundation Award for Best Postdoctoral Research in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UCLA (2009)

•MBI Postdoctoral Recognition Award, UCLA (2009)

•First Prize, Hebei Natural Science Award, for “Calcium-Calmodulin Pathway in Heat Shock Signal Transduction” (2005, 2nd contributor)