As a center of learning with a history of more than 100 years, Wuhan University continues to quicken the pace of becoming a truly international institution, as Zhao Xinying and Liu Kun report from Wuhan, Hubei province.

From the son of a farmer to a scientist working on hybrid rice, Zhu Yingguo said his original intention of attending Wuhan University and studying biology after he graduated from high school in 1959, was to reduce starvation.

Now a professor at Wuhan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the 75-year-old said he had realized his dream with the success of honglian, a type of hybrid rice he developed.