The discipline of forest engineering at BFU is one of the earliest disciplines in this field in China. In 1981 and 1986, it was granted as one of first batch of disciplines which were authorized to confer master’s degrees and doctoral degrees by Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. Its post-doctoral research center station was established in 2003. It became the first-level key municipal discipline in Beijing in 2008 and the first-level key discipline of SFA in 2015. Its sub-discipline, wood science and technology, was identified as a key national discipline in 2007. The discipline of forest engineering is also the key construction discipline of “Innovation Platform for Prioritized Academic Disciplines”, “Project 211” and “Education Revitalization Action Plan”.
1．Mission & Orientation
In order to satisfy the huge demand for national sustainable development, the discipline closely connects to the main area of forest engineering, focuses on the advancing front of eco-material and the technology of forestry equipment, improves the quality of cultivating innovative talents in forest engineering, establishes high- level innovative research and development base, builds the world-class discipline and realizes the leapfrog development of forest science, technology and industry.
2．Advantages & features
(1) Complete discipline system & distinctive characteristics
For a long time, the discipline of forest engineering has centered on these key national strategies, demanding for green, innovative and sustainable development, as well as frontiers of international technology, which developed into five secondary disciplines, covering its main areas’ technical and industrial chains. The discipline and its direction has distinct characteristics and advantages, such as green wood processing, wood-based new materials, clean separation and high-value utilization of biomass, active substances extraction from forest resource, forestry robots and special equipment, forestry information monitoring and forestry Internet of Things.
(2)Strong faculty & outstanding young talents
The discipline enjoys strong faculty, including 1 chief scientist of “973 Program”(National Program on Key Basic Research Program), 3 distinguished professors funded by the Chang Jiang Scholars Program, 2 outstanding youth fund winners, 1 “Thousand Talent Program for Young Outstanding Scientist” and 1 “Top-notch talent” by the CPC Central Committee, 3 members of the 6th/7th discipline appraisal group of the State Council, 1 committee member of MOE Scientific and Technological Commission’s Academic Department, 1 Deputy Director of National Education Steering Committee, 2 National Hundred Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations’ instructors and 3 its winners, and 8 MOE New Century Excellent Talents.
(3) Talents cultivation with strong capacity and high quality
In recent 5 years, 939 SCI(Science Citation Index) papers have been published by its graduate students as the first author or first unit. 549 EI(the Engineering Index)/ISTP(Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings) papers have been collected successfully. Among them, there are 161 papers published in JCR(Journal Citation Reports) Q1 journals, and 2 papers nominated as National Hundred Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations. 3 graduates students won Baogang Outstanding Student Special Award and 3 became the National Top-ten Forestry Graduates. At the meantime, its students have won many prizes in the national professional competitions, such as China Robot Competition and National Competition of Internet of Things etc., with 9 special and first awards, and over 110 other awards.
(4) Predominance in fundamental research & leading on international academic research
Its faculty hosted and managed the first“973 Program” among all the forestry colleges and universities. Meanwhile, a series of key projects or programs were presided over, such as Key International Cooperation and Exchange Program supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC), NSFC Distinguished Young Scholars’ Fund and NSFC Major?Programs. The research of efficient separation of biomass components and its directional transformation is at the international frontier, leading over 20 research teams at home and abroad to track and study. In recent 5 years, its faculty has published 61 SCI papers related to hemicellulose, ranking the first all over the world.
(5) Prominent platform support
The discipline enjoys 8 provincial and ministerial research and education platforms, including 1 MOE(Ministry of Education) Key Laboratory, 2 Beijing Key Laboratories, 1 MOE Engineering Research Center, 3 Beijing Teaching Demonstration Centers, and 1 National Extramural Practical Education Base for Undergraduate Students. More than 50 research and education bases and 1 pilot transformation base of scientific and technological achievements with its own property. A variety of discipline platforms have accomplished a multifunctional and all-round systems, coordinative and complementary between education and research, between fundamental research, applied research and achievement transformation, and between scientific research, talents cultivation, and social service.
3．Cultivation Target
The discipline has met the national strategic demands of sustainable development, on these key national strategies, demanding for green, innovative and sustainable development, as well as frontiers of international technology. The discipline centers on satisfying the strategic demands of national sustainable development, deals with the demand for improving our natural environment and industrial forestry development, acquaint leading personnel, given a background in industrial technology a nd industries, with the culture and business views from an international perspective. Qualified personnel are provided for the development of science, technology and engineering.
4．Direction of the discipline
The discipline of Forest Engineering is composed of five secondary disciplines, i.e.Wood Science & Technology, Chemical Engineering Processes of Forest Products, Forest Engineering, Forest Information Engineering and Forest Equipment Engineering. We carry out research in basic theory of wood and its applications, in the theory of energy-saving in wood drying and technology, wood-based composites and adhesives, the processing techniques of woodwork, basic scientific problems in biomass transformation, forestry equipment and automation, the ergonomics of the human/machine interface in forest engineering, monitoring of forest ecology and amassing forest data for the internet of things.
5．Influence at home and abroad
In recent years, faculty members in the discipline have been awarded three second place National Technical Invention Awards, of which two with the first complete affiliation and one with the second affiliation, eleven Provincial Science and Technology Awards and four provincial and ministerial level teaching achievement awards. Over the past five years, we hosted 342 important programs including the Fund for International Cooperation and Exchange, major programs for the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Science and Technology Support Program, the “863” Program and the International Cooperative Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Total funding exceeded 200 million yuan. More than 613 SCI indexed papers have been published with affiliation of the first author, including 82 JCR A district papers, 578 EI/ISTP indexed papers, Over the spade of a number of years 218 patents have been authorized, while 53 monographs and annotations of translations and teaching material have been published. The efficient separation of components and directional transformation of biomass is at the frontier of international research and has been followed by more than 20 teams at home and abroad. We published 61 SCI indexed papers on hemicellulose, a major achievement in the international world of science & technology.
