Grape & wine science

Zhanwu Dai, Ph.D., is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS), and a recipient of the National Youth Talent Program. He currently serves as Deputy Director of the Botanical Garden and Deputy Director of the Beijing Key Laboratory of Grape Science and Winemaking Technology.

He received his B.S. degree from Shandong Agricultural University in 2003 and his M.S. degree from China Agricultural University in 2005. He earned dual Ph.D. degrees through a Sino-French joint program—awarded by China Agricultural University in December 2008 and by the University of Avignon, France, in February 2009. From March 2009 to February 2010, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Clermont-Ferrand branch of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA). From March 2010 to March 2019, he worked as a Research Scientist (Chargé de Recherche) at INRA's Bordeaux center and the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ISVV).

In April 2019, Dr. Dai returned to China and joined the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

His research focuses on grape berry development and quality formation, molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress responses, germplasm innovation in grapevine, and wine-related biology. He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed SCI papers in prestigious international journals, including The Plant Cell, Advanced Science, Trends in Plant Science, New Phytologist, and The Plant Journal.
Dr. Dai currently serves as Chair of the Youth Branch of the Chinese Society for Horticultural Science and is an Editorial Board member of Scientific Data, Fruit Research, Chinese Journal of Grapes and Wine, and Chinese Journal of Agrometeorology. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to grape science and Sino-French academic collaboration, he was awarded the French Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Knight of the Academic Palms).

To date, he has mentored 19 graduate students, doctoral candidates, and postdoctoral researchers, and remains deeply committed to advancing grape and wine science in China and nurturing the next generation of scientists.