Ben Yang

My name is Ben Yang, I am a first year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Science. I come from China and had my bachelor’s degree of Environmental Biology at the University of Toronto. I am currently working on investigating how does soil microbial community change during ecological restoration. But what really fascinate me is how microbes and plants build their special relationship, and how does such relationship benefit the both sides.

My undergraduate program actually did not include microbiology. It is basically ecology plus some applied environmental science. I find that microbes are perfect material to show evolution and reveal how our ecosystem forms, because they can evolve fast.

There are two reasons why people want to go to graduate school. One is curiosity, the other is we want to save the world. Hopefully my future research could make contribution to fight against desertification and sustainable development of our species.