Xiang Zhonghuai, a PhD, Geneticist. He graduated from Sericulture Department, Southwest Agricultural College, P. R. China, 1958,  Department of Fiber Science and Textile Technology, Shinshu University, Japan, in 1984.

He is a member of the Commission of Academic Degrees under the State Council 1995-present, Director of Key Laboratory of Sericulture of Ministry of Agriculture from 1997precent;President of Southwest Agricultural University;  deputy to the eighth and ninth National Peoples Congress; deputy to the 15th  Congress of the Communist Party of China. He was elected the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1995.

From 1958-1986, He was assistant professor and then Lecture, teaching the subject of silkworm genetics and breeding and researching in the field of silkworm genetics and breeding at Department of Sericulture.

From 1987 to present he is professor at Southwest Agricultural University, teaching and researching in the field of silkworm genetics and breeding at Department of Sericulture (1987-1995) & Key Laboratory of Sericulture of Ministry of Agriculture (1995-present).

Sine 1958, Professor Xiang has mainly engaged in the genetics and breeding research in silkworm and mulberry. As one of the major founders, Prof. Xiang has greatly contributed to set up the first silkworms gene pool in China, established the silkworm genetic linkage maps and created many useful genetic resources in silkworm and mulberry. He also found and identified more than 10 new mutants in silkworm such as W-5, grr, PBs, etc., and bred 3 silkworm varieties with good quality and high output: Dongzhong×Wuqishu，Janpanse3×Chinese 5、6，Xiafang×Qiubai. The research group led by Prof. Xiang has successfully bred an early sexdistinguished variety via introducing L gene into a commercial variety. As a principal investigator, Prof. Xiang organized the silkworm genome project. The first highquality draft sequence for the genome of the silkworm in the world was published in Science (2004), and 16948 intact ORFs and nearly 6000 new genes have been found.

Prof. Xiang has published more than 100 peerreviewed articles.

Monographs: Silkworm Genetics and Breeding. Science Presser(Beijing),1994. Silkworm Breeding in China. Sichuan Science &Technology Presser (Chengdu),1995. Complete Works of Sericultural Technology in China Sichuan Science &Technology Presser (Chengdu),1996.  Biology of Sericulture.Chinese Forestry Presser (Beijing),2005.