Professor Henry SUN from Desert Research Institute, USA, visited the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG), Chinese Academy of Sciences on 21 October. During his stay, he presented a lecture entitled “Desert Biology: from the Antarctic Pole to the Dead Valley”. 

Focused on that whether or not the microorganism exist in the Antarctic Pole, Prof. SUN introduced his experience during the field investigation in the Antarctic Pole and the evidence of microorganism existing within the stones of Antarctic Pole. Based on the topic of the heterogeneity and homogeneity of the microorganism between the extremely arid desert region in the Las Vegas of USA and the Antarctic Pole, Prof. SUN specially illustrated that microorganism universally exist in the nature.            

Prof. SUN also provided several hot spots on the researches of biology in the arid regions of China. Moreover, he shared the “Writing Methods and Techniques of Scientific Papers” with the participants. 

Prof. SUN got his bachelor and master degrees in the Nanjing University, and obtained the PhD degree in the Florida State University. He has worked in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology. Now, he works in the Desert Research Institute, USA, and engages in the fields of geological biology, environmental biology and astrobiology. He has published nearly 30 articles in international journals, such as Science, Nature Communications, Environmental Science and Technology, PLOS ONE, etc.