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Hongfu Yin: from defining the Golden Spike to shaping geobiology
1School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).
Abstract:
Professor Hongfu Yin, born in 1935, is one of the pioneers of paleontology and geobiology in China. He and his colleagues proposed the conodont fossil to replace the ammonoid fossil as the index for defining the Permian-Triassic Boundary (PTB) in 1986, ultimately setting this 'Golden Spike' at China's Meishan section in 2001 after 15 years of effort. Afterwards, he devoted much time to development of new interdisciplinary research on geobiology in China. Professor Yin is also a devoted teacher who established a productive research group and trained a large number of excellent younger geologists. Recently, Prof. Yin sat down for an interview with National Science Review (NSR) and generously shared his stories of the Meishan Golden Spike, the field of geobiology and his personal scientific career.
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