Recently, the twelfth session of the model worker commendation conference of Heilongjiang Province was held in Harbin International Convention Center at the Globe Theater. Ma Jianzhong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, honorary dean of the College of Wildlife Resources of NEFU, and academic leader of the state-level key disciplines—wildlife protection and utilization, won the title of the province’s model laborer. 997 people were awarded as model workers, of which 20 people are workers and staff recommended by the education trade unions from subordinate colleges and universities of the province and affiliated hospitals and some universities outside Harbin.

Academician Ma Jianzhang, a senior professor and scholar in NEFU, is the founder and pioneer of higher education of wildlife protection and utilization in China. He graduated in 1960 and has worked as a teacher since then in our school, actively running to create China’s first profession of wildlife protection and utilization, so that China’s wildlife management higher education developed from a forest animal breeding profession into an academic and educational field including wildlife and nature reserve management (Animal Protection), wildlife and nature reserve management (Animal Science), wildlife and nature reserve management (Wetland Science), nature reserves and wildlife medicine and many other professions.

At present, the NEFU College of Wildlife Resources created by Ma Jianzhang has become an important breeding base for wildlife management in China, and a window through which the world can understand China’s wildlife management and protection. Over the past 50 years, Ma Jianzhang has travelled around the country to carry out wild animal research and protection work, and made outstanding contributions to the protection of China’s biodiversity. He has edited and supervised more than 20 treatises and textbooks, published more than 200 papers, and earned many awards, such as oneSecond-class Prize of National Science & Technology Progress Award, fourSecond-class Prizes andsix Third-class prizesofProvincial and Ministerial LevelScience & Technology Progress Awards, two First-class Provincial Teaching Achievement Prizes, one First-class and Second-class National Teaching Achievement Prizes, the first Earth Award, the Outstanding Individual Award for National Field of Scientific and Technological Work, the Outstanding Individual Award for National Wildlife Protection, the Outstanding Individual Award for National Nature Reserve, the Outstanding Workers of National Agricultural Division, the National Outstanding Forestry Science and Technology Workers, the Young and Middle-aged Expert of Ministry of Forestry with Remarkable Contributions, the National Forestry Science and Technology Contribution Award, Heilongjiang Province Outstanding Scientific and Technological Workers, the first “Revitalization of Education” of Heilongjiang Province, and the first Outstanding Contribution Award for the Protection of Wild Animals—Giant Panda Award, among many others.