Lan Siren

Spring 2017 Honorary Degree Recipient

Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)

An internationally renowned landscape architect and expert in forestry development, national forest parks, wetland parks, and urban landscape planning and design, Dr. Lan Siren is President of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in China (FAFU) — an institution with which Dalhousie has had a long and valued relationship.

Dr. Lan completed a Bachelor of Agriculture at the Fujian College of Forestry, then qualified as a senior engineer. He holds a Master of Economics from Xiamen University and a Doctor of Agriculture from Beijing Forestry University. Since taking over as President in 2010, he has transformed the FAFU property into a haven of innovative landscape architecture that helps reduce pollution and makes the campus a living classroom. FAFU has grown from just 4,000 students in 1998 to around 40,000 today, much of that during Dr. Lan’s tenure as President.

Dr. Lan is also a leader in international cooperation for education and research. In his time as President of FAFU, he has enthusiastically embraced and strengthened his institution’s long partnership with Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture through articulation agreements and FAFU’s Overseas Education College. Dr. Lan is also Vice Chairman of the Forest Park Branch and Bamboo Branch of the Chinese Society of Forestry, Chairman of the Fujian Forestry Society, and Distinguished Research Fellow of the Fujian Government Economic Development Research Center. He has held a series of prestigious government appointments and won numerous awards and honours for his research in China.