Prof. Chen Zhangliang received his Ph.D from Washington University in St. Louis in 1987, majored in molecular biology and biotechnology. He returned back to Peking University, as vice professor, professor, and then chairman in Biology Department, Dean in the College of Life Sciences. In 1995 he was the Vice president in Peking University. He was director of the National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering. He and his colleagues have published 7 books and nearly 200 papers.

In 2002, Professor Chen was elected the President of China Agricultural University. He also serves as Chair of Plant Biotech Committee of UNESCO, Consultant for the International Society for Plant Molecular Biology (ISPMB). He received many honors including the UNESCO Javed Husain Prize for Young Scientists and TIME's Global 100 Roster of Young Leaders for the New Millennium. Every year he was invited to attend many international conferences as a great speaker. He attended APEC in 2001, FORTUNE Global Forum in 1999 and in 2001, and The World Food Prize in Des Moines in 2006, etc.