I was extremely pleased to receive the prestigious CAS PIFI award, and I am very grateful for the opportunity it has provided me to reconnect with my colleagues at the Centre for Mountain Futures (CMF).

Previously, I had been positioned at CMF when it was still known as the Centre for Mountain Environment Studies (CMES), initially as a CIM Expert followed by GIZ, from 2009 to 2015. As an expert on environmental and natural resources management, my main task was to support and improve the research performance at CMES through acquiring and conducting research process, as well as by collaborating with my Chinese colleagues on their research publications.

As a PIFI fellow, I had a very productive and enjoyable time at CMF, staying in an apartment right outside the campus of CAS’s Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB). I enjoyed the daily hike from my apartment across the ridge that runs right through the campus to my office, and also the daily walks through the Kunming Botanical Garden, alone or with friends and colleagues.

The objective of my visit was to explore the synergy between the work of my CAS colleagues with my ongoing projects in the Himalayan region and in Southeast Asia, as well as to work on paper manuscripts, and to plan future joint research projects. Under these auspices, I engaged in many activities.

I look forward to continuing collaborative research with colleagues at CAS/CMF along the lines that we have previously agreed and already embarked upon during my time as a PIFI fellow. I also look forward to hosting Chinese colleagues at my home institution, the University of Freiburg, in Germany. As a first step, I have encouraged a young Chinese postdoc to apply for the prestigious International Climate Protection Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation with the prospect of hosting him, should he be awarded the fellowship.

Source: Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt,

Kunming Institute of Botany,

Chinese Academy of Sciences