On May 23rd, 2019, SHSID biology students from grades ten and eleven went to the Shanghai Harvard Center to participate in a lecture titled “Harvard and China—A Century of Engagement Through Trees” given by Harvard professor William Friedman. During the lecture, Professor Friedman mainly focused on introducing the history of collaboration between Harvard botanists charged with the mission of discovering and bringing the seeds of plant species from China—which has ten times greater biodiversity of plants per unit area compared to the United States—and local Chinese botanists. According to the professor, the history of collaboration between Harvard and China in the field of plant exchange extends to the early 20th century. The professor greatly emphasized the importance of holding a strong passion and dedication to one’s field of interest, the ability to collaborate with others with similar interest and the willingness to share one’s discoveries with the world in order to promote such a field of interest. The professor ended the lecture by encouraging more students to collaborate with global youth of the same generation in order to meet the challenges faced by the planet such as global warming and rapid extinction of species in the years to come. All the students present were greatly inspired and deeply grateful for the opportunity to listen to the enlightening and immensely well-presented lecture given by Professor Friedman.

(Written by Rachel Wu 11(1)A              Pictures by Zhang Li)