Group Leader | Wang Lab

Mengcen Wang is a professor at the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University (ZJU), Hangzhou, China. He received a Ph.D from Hokkaido University in Japan for rhizosphere microbial interkingdom interaction in the lab of Professor Yasuyuki Hashidoko in 2013. In 2014, he joined ZJU and built up a lab that focuses on the chemical language within host-microbiome-environment interaction and the underlying mechanisms, with the aim of developing measures for safer crop production and sustainable agriculture.

Professional Experience

Oct. 2023 – Present: Director, Institute of Pesticides and Environmental Toxicology, Zhejiang University
Nov. 2023 – Present: Deputy Director, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Research Center for Biological Control of Crop Diseases and Pests
Apr. 2022 – Present: Deputy Head, Department of Plant Protection, Zhejiang University
May 2022 – Aug. 2023: Assistant Dean (Special Appointment), Institute of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University
Sep. 2019 – Sep. 2023: Deputy Director, Institute of Pesticides and Environmental Toxicology, Zhejiang University
Dec. 2021 – Present: Professor, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; Doctoral and Master’s Supervisor
Oct. 2013 – Dec. 2021: Lecturer and Associate Professor, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; Doctoral and Master’s Supervisor

Major Achievements

Dr. Wang’s research group focuses on plant disease control, particularly the interaction mechanisms among rice, symbiotic bacteria, and pathogens, as well as innovative applications. He has led 17 research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (including the Excellent Young Scientists Fund, Regional Key Projects, General Projects, and Youth Projects), the National Key R&D Program (including projects, sub-projects, and topics), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Major and Youth Projects), and the Hangzhou Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Key Projects).
His research has elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which symbiotic bacteria regulate rice disease resistance, established a platform for mining and precise engineering of rice symbiotic bacterial resources, and developed biological control technologies based on rice symbiotic bacteria, which have been successfully applied in practice. These contributions have laid a solid foundation for overcoming bottlenecks in plant disease biocontrol through effective utilization of symbiotic bacterial resources.
His research has resulted in seven authorized national invention patents and the publication of 84 papers in leading international journals, including Nature Microbiology (2024, 2023), Nature Plants (2024, 2021), and Nature Food (2022). Among these, seven papers were selected as cover articles, five were designated as ESI Highly Cited Papers, one ranked among the top 0.1% of globally hot papers, and one received the highest-star recommendation from F1000. His work has been positively highlighted and reviewed in journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Reviews Microbiology, Nature Plants, and PNAS.
Dr. Wang has received numerous accolades, including the Young Scientist Award from the Chinese Society of Agronomy, the Outstanding Young and Middle-Aged Scientist Award in Pesticide Science, the First Prize of the Zhejiang Provincial Agricultural Harvest Award (Second Place), the 2019–2023 Zhejiang Provincial Advanced Individual Award for Plant Protection Technology Promotion, the Zhejiang University Top Ten Academic Achievements for Young Scholars, and the Elsevier China Gold Open Access High Download Paper Scholar Award.

Student Training

Dr. Wang’s research group has mentored undergraduate and graduate students who have collectively received 52 academic honors, including the National Scholarship, Provincial Outstanding Graduate Awards (Doctoral and Master’s levels), the Zhu Kezhen Scholarship, and the Undergraduate Top 100 Award.

Academic Appointments

2023 – Present: Executive Editor-in-Chief of Crop Health.
2022 – Present: Youth Editorial Board Member for iMeta and the Journal of Pesticide Science.
2021 – Present: Editorial Board Member for Frontiers in Plant Science and other journals.
2021 – 2022: Guest Editor for JoVE (Special Issue: Advances in Methodology for Plant Microbiome Research).
2020: Committee Member, Global Education Program for AgriScience Frontiers (Hokkaido University).
2019: Bentham Ambassador.
2015 – Present: Member of the Chinese Society of Plant Protection (CSPP).
2013 – 2015: Member of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry (JSBBA).
2012 – 2015: Member of the Pesticide Science Society of Japan (PSSJ).
He also serves as a peer reviewer for leading international academic journals, such as Science, Cell Host & Microbe, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Nature Microbiology, Nature Plants, Nature Food, Nature Communications, Microbiome, New Phytologist, Science Bulletin, and Trends in Microbiology.