The Einstein Professorship of Chinese Academy of Sciences was awarded to Prof. Ralf Conrad from Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology on May 18 at the lecture hall of the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Ralf Conrad is a world renowned scholar in biogeochemical cycling of atmospheric trace gases. After CAS Einstein Professorship Award Ceremony hosted by Prof. Renfang Shen, the director general of ISSCAS..

CAS Einstein Professorship Award Ceremony & Academic Report

Prof. Ralf Conrad delivered a lecture entitled “The role of soil microorganisms in the global cycle of atmospheric trace gases. Then Prof. Conrad had a discussion with the researchers and postgraduates of ISSCAS. Prof. Conrad’s visit is a part of the Einstein Professorship Program of the CAS.

About Prof. Ralf Conrad

Prof. Conrad served the Director general of Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, the chief editor of FEMS Microbiology Ecology. He is a leading figure in biogeochemical cycling of atmospheric trace gases. He has envisioned that soil and ocean can function as a source, a sink, or both for the cycling of trace gas, which is largely regulated by microorganisms. He has been leading the research areas of atmospheric H2 consumption by soil and methane emission in rice field. He established the thermodynamic theory of sequential reduction in rice field based on different microbial guilds. He discovered the microorganisms with different affinities to substrate in nature environments, which explained the microbial mechanisms of soil as source or sink for atmospheric CH4. Tthe scientific work has been published in more than 40 review articles and 270 original publications in peer-reviewed journals, resulting in more than 9600 citations, on the average with 37 citations per article. The h-index by the Web of Science is h=54.

About the Einstein Professorship Program

The Einstein Professorship Program is initiated by the CAS in 2004. Einstein Professorships will be awarded each year to 20 distinguished international scientists actively working at the frontiers of science and technology, for conducting lecture-tours to China. It aims to strengthen science and technology links, cooperation and exchange between CAS scientists and respective Einstein Professors and their laboratories, and enhance the training of future generations of scientists in China.