Rong Li
Plants of Tibet
Rong Li graduated from Shaanxi Normal University of China with B.S. in 1997, received M.S. in 2000 and Ph.D. in 2003 in the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His primary research focuses on the biodiversity inventory and conservation studies in the eastern Himalayan region. In the past ten years, he joined a long-term, large-scale survey and inventory of the biota of the Gaoligong Mountains in western Yunnan Province, China. The project discovered many species new to science and many new records for the region, and also developed a comprehensive GIS-based data set for use in biogeographical analysis and conservation management strategies for the local government. He also expand studies in systematics and biogeography of flowering plant groups including Dendropanax and Schefflera of Araliaceae (ginseng family). He uses a combination of morphological and molecular approaches on plant groups to understand their species diversity, evolutionary relationships, and adaptations to particular environments.
