Hou Beiwei, PhD, member of the Jiusan Society, is an associate professor at the Nanjing Institute for Comprehensive Utilization of Wild Plants of the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives. A native of Rugao, Jiangsu, Hou Beiwei graduated from Nanjing Normal University. Hou Beiwei is a council member of the Ethnobotany Branch of the Botanical Society of China and of the Jiangsu Botanical Society, a master's supervisor at Jiangsu Ocean University and an editor of Chinese Wild Plant Resources. Hou Beiwei has led an international science and technology cooperation base project and provincial and municipal innovation projects in science, agriculture and forestry, taken part in National Key R&D Program projects of the 14th Five-Year Plan and key R&D projects of Xinjiang, and cooperated with more than ten companies. Hou Beiwei is also a science and technology commissioner of Jiangsu Province and head of a commissioner workstation in Anhui. Hou Beiwei has published more than 30 papers (more than 20 in SCI journals) and two books, applied for more than ten invention patents (eight granted), contributed to two national and six industry standards, and received six first prizes for scientific progress from the China General Chamber of Commerce. Research interests include ethnobotany, ecological cultivation and high-value use of distinctive economic plants, and standardization of agricultural and forest specialty products.