The College of Horticulture, one of the oldest colleges in the Northwest A&F University,was founded in 1934 when it was called the Horticulture Group of the National Northwest Agriculture and Forestry College. In 1999, the Department of Horticulture of the Northwest Agricultural University, the Shaanxi PomologyResearch Institute, the Shaanxi Olericulture & Floriculture Research Institute were incorporated into the College of Horticulture of the Northwest A&F University.It began to recruit undergraduates in 1936, graduate students in 1961,doctoral studentsin 1986 and international students in 2008.
Discipline Construction
The college has authorized doctoral and master degree programsand postdoctoral mobile research stations ofthe first-level discipline of horticulture, which consists of four secondary disciplines in the field of pomology, olericulture, tea science and protected horticulture.There are three provincial key disciplines including the Pomology, the Olericulture and theTea Science, as well as two undergraduate majors including the Horticulture and the ProtectedAgriculture Science and Engineering.
Education &Scientific Research
The college engages infour academic fields including the Pomology,the Olericulture, the ProtectedAgricultural Engineering& Science andthe Ornamental Horticulture. We have one laboratory center; onenational-level experimental teaching demonstration center listed in the "National Twelfth Five-Year Plan”; one national key laboratory; one national germplasm resource nursery; oneinnovation base,three national research institutes, three key laboratories and three technical research institutes at provincial and ministerial level; three school-level research centers and 20 off-campus professional experimental demonstration bases.
Faculty Resources
Nowadays, the college has 170 teaching and administrative staff, among whom 45 hold senior position, 40 hold secondary senior position, 35 are qualified to supervise doctoral students, 42 are qualified to supervise master degree students and three are jointly-appointed academicians. We also have one external chair professor, eight part-time professors and 33 guest professors. The college faculty members have won a number of titles and awards, including one "National Prominent Teacher”, one winner in the "National Ten-thousand Talents Program”,two candidates in the"Young Talent Program Specialist”,one winner in the "Outstanding Youth Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation”, one winner in the "Program for New Century Excellent Talents" bythe Ministry of Education (MOE), five winners in the "Program for New Century Excellent Talents" by MOE as well as 27 experts and scholars in different fields at ministerial and provincial level. The college provides opportunities for international communication and conferences forten people on average annually. Among all the professors and scholars, 51 have more than three months of overseas training experience, 45 assume duties in international academic organizations, conferences or publications.During the past five years, the college has cultivated 11 international studentsand 21 are currently enrolled.
Scientific Research Achievements
The college of Horticulture has fruitful achievements in scientific research. It has undertaken a total of 194 scientific research projects, with an annual accumulative fundof more than 58.28 million yuan. Since the incorporation of the three institutes,the college has won 80 scientific payoffs at the provincial and ministerial level, including threesecondaryprizes of the "National Scientific and Technological Progress Awards” and ten"Provincial Scientific & Technology Awards”. Up until now, the college has bred 231 new cultivas and invented 156 authorized patents. A large number of high qualified articles are published in various famous international journals, including659 SCI and EI papers and more than 115 monographs.
Since the establishment of the college, generations of scholars and students have been adhering to the school motto of "Honesty, Simplicity, Bravery, Persistence”, as well as inheriting and carrying forward the fine school tradition of "Engaging in State Foundation, Orienting to People’s Livelihood, Believing in Science”. We are now actively promoting the school strategy of "Developing throughScience& Education, Strengthening through Talents” with the discipline construction in the lead and the compact combination of"Industry-Academy-Research” s as the school-running characteristics. Now, all our undertakings have achieved historic leap-frog development, which makes outstandingcontributions to the development of China's horticultural science and education. In order to further improve the discipline construction and achieve the goal of the world-class horticultural college, the faculty and students, with full enthusiasm and innovation,are now striving to forge ahead for the development of horticultural science and education in China.
