Wang Fengping (; born 1971) is a Chinese marine microbiologist who studies microbes that live in deep sea and subsurface environments, with a special focus on the physiology and geochemical roles of organisms that cannot yet be cultivated in the lab. She is a professor at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU; ) is a Public university, public research university in Shanghai, Shanghai, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China ...
.
Career
Wang earned an MS in Crop Genetics and Breeding in 1995 and a PhD in Molecular Biology in 1998 at
Huazhong Agricultural University
Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU; ) is a public university in Wuhan, giving priority to agriculture, characterized by life sciences and supplemented by the combination of agriculture, basic sciences, engineering, liberal arts, law, economic t ...
in Wuhan, China. Following her doctoral work, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at
Osnabrück University
Osnabrück University (german: Universität Osnabrück) is a public research university located in the city of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany.
In 2011 it was attended by 11,034 students; the staff of 1,858 consisted of 209 professors, 936 ...
, in Osnabrück, Germany. In 2002, Wang joined the staff of the Key Laboratory of Marine Biogenetic Resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, in Xiamen, China. She became a faculty member of the School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2009.
Wang was awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist Grant from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; ) is an organization directly affiliated to China's State Council for the management of the National Natural Science Fund.
History
NSFC was founded in February 1986 by theoretical chemist Ta ...
for
deep biosphere
The deep biosphere is the part of the biosphere that resides below the first few meters of the surface. It extends down at least 5 kilometers below the continental surface and 10.5 kilometers below the sea surface, at temperatures that ...
research. She has served as a scientific committee member of the
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) was an international marine research program. The program used heavy drilling equipment mounted aboard ships to monitor and sample sub-seafloor environments. With this research, the IODP documented e ...
-China since 2014, and is a member of the Deep Life Scientific Steering Committee for the
Deep Carbon Observatory
The Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) is a global research program designed to transform understanding of carbon's role in Earth. DCO is a community of scientists, including biologists, physicists, geoscientists and chemists, whose work crosses sever ...
(DCO).
Research initiatives
Wang’s research investigates the diversity and geochemical processes of microbes living in marine sediments. By sequencing DNA from
Archaea, Wang’s group determined that the Bathyarchaeota, a group of Archaea that are abundant in marine sediments, is its own distinct phylum. She named the phylum in 2014. She provided genetic evidence that some Bathyarchaeota are capable of converting carbon dioxide to acetate to generate energy in a process called
homoacetogenesis. Previously, this type of metabolism was known to exist only in bacteria. Her lab also has investigated the metabolism and environmental adaptations of ''Shewanella piezotolerans'', a pressure-tolerant, deep-sea, iron reducing bacterium.
Further reading
A New Role for Marine Archaea
References
External links
Fengping Wang- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Fengping
1971 births
Living people
Chinese women biologists
Academic staff of Shanghai Jiao Tong University