Dr. Fangliang He, a professor in the Department of Renewable Resources in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, believes scientific advancement is a result of healthy debate around the knowledge that discoveries and results can change when using different methodologies and addressing new questions about the same research problem and research data.
In this week’s spotlight, Dr. He invites us to generate new approaches to solving a problem and to recognize the strengths and influence that quiet solitude and teamwork can have throughout the scientific exploration and discovery process.
How do you describe your work to people who don’t work in your field?
I am an ecologist who loves to hug trees (but I am not a tree hugger). Unlike some ecologists, I also love to crunch numbers. Among other things, I am particularly interested in knowing how many trees are in our boreal forest, how many plant and animal species are in our landscapes, and how many species have gone extinct on Earth. Those are simple numbers but are very difficult to even guess.
What’s one big problem you want to solve through your work?
I want to find out the likelihood a species will die in a given future time. Like individual organisms, no species on earth, including homo sapiens, can live forever. But their life expectancy varies. What determines the fate of a species? How would contemporary environmental change affect the survivorship of life on Earth? These questions fascinate me.
What does the word “innovation” mean to you?
To me, innovation has a simple meaning: Think things other people do not think, say things other people do not say, and solve things others do not solve.
I often challenge students with the following questions: (1) Can you ask the same question in a different way, or better, can you raise different questions from the same data? (2) Can you say (or write) the same thing in a different way? (3) Can you propose different approaches to solve the same problem? If you can do any of these, you are innovative.
What’s been your biggest a-ha moment — in life or work — so far?
Interestingly, I did have a few such “oh s- -t, it works!” moments in the past. In 2000, I wondered how to use a map of species distribution (e.g., bird atlas) to find out how many birds are actually there. I came up with a method. I was so excited and couldn’t stop crying out “s- -t!” when empirical data and computer simulation showed the method worked really well. It became known to me later on that the problem I solved was the reverse of the classical birth problem first proposed by the 18th French mathematician Laplace who was interested in knowing how many days in a year were empty (i.e., without baby births) given he knew how many babies were born in the year. It is a cool problem.
How do you or your team come up with your best ideas?
This question makes me think of whether scientific questing is more of a democratic process or a dictating one. It really depends on the nature of the problems in hand. Teamwork could be crucial for some problems but not for others. From my own experience, any idea has to start from someone first. That very first idea then evolves into the “best” idea over time and through multiple stages, including a team approach.
In our lab, we don’t have any formalities or ways to brew ideas. However, we have regular lab meetings where we challenge, we brainstorm, we disagree and we agree.
What’s your favourite thing about working at the 伊人直播?
I enjoy a lot of things at the 伊人直播, like teaching my biodiversity and statistics courses. I feel greatly satisfied and rewarded when students come to tell me that they finally understand what degrees of freedom are and how to count them, or when a student came to thank me for asking him the same question in class that was asked in his job interview a week ago (he was offered the job, of course). Among these, my favourite moments are when I quietly sit in my office reading my favourite subjects or I suddenly figure out a question that I have been puzzled with.
Do you have a role model at the 伊人直播? How have they influenced you?
I am grateful and feel very fortunate that I have been associated with so many wonderful colleagues across campus. They have influenced me in no small ways. Among them, I would like to particularly mention professor emeritus John Spence and Vic Lieffers who are world leaders in forest entomology and silviculture, respectively. These examples of distinct scholarship and moderation have greatly influenced me.
What’s next for you? Do you have any new projects on the horizon?
I have a few things that I hope to solve in the next few years. One of them is to find an effective patch size (similar to the concept of effective population size in population genetics). The work should contribute to reconciling the recently renewed debate on a long-standing controversy: whether a large intact landscape patch is more effective than several small patches in protecting biodiversity.
How does your work, your contributions to innovation help you lead with purpose?
When I do my research, I never think about how I am necessarily leading. I just like what I do and feel satisfied when I am able to solve a problem that I believe of scientific significance. On a few occasions over my career, I did generate “inconvenient truth” – scientific findings that some people do not necessarily feel comfortable with. For example, species extinction rates may not be as high as people have thought or tree competition may be responsible for the death of more trees than climate change is. I believe science advances not by agreement but by disagreement. That is the moment when scientific revolution is catalyzed.
About Fangliang
Fangliang He is a professor in the Department of Renewable Resources. He joined the 伊人直播 in 2003 from the Pacific Centre of the Canadian Forest Service. He is an ecologist and a statistician by training. His research interest has focused on quantifying species distribution in landscapes, understanding the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of biodiversity, and predicting the impact of global change on natural ecosystems. He is a major contributor to the global network and has played a vital role in support of the research involving the network. In his leisure time, he enjoys 10K jogging and loves opera arias.
Find Dr. He on .
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Innovator Spotlight is a series that introduces you to a faculty or staff member whose big ideas are making a big difference.
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