The College of Bioresources and Agriculture and Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture invited Dr. William B. Miller, a floriculture professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science of Cornell University, to NTU from April 28 to May 9, 2019. The funding of Dr. Miller’s flower bulb research project is from the Royal Dutch Wholesalers' Association of Flowerbulbs and Nursery Stock, which leads the production and sale of flowering bulbs in the world. Netherlands is the world's major country for floral crops trading. This international collaboration project shows Dr. Miller is a scholar with outstanding performance in floriculture.

Dr. Miller gave a speech and led a panel discussion at the Floriculture Hall of Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture on April 29, 2019. The topics were "The Development of Novel and Sustainable Practices for Utilization of Flower Bulbs in the North America" and "Creative Thinking and Practical Methodology in Horticultural Research", respectively. The topics covered current situations of the flower bulb industry, the emerging technology of hydroponic cultivation in flower bulbs, and the post-harvest problems caused by fungi and ethylene during storage and transportation of the bulbs, etc. The speech clearly demonstrated how academic researches can contribute to the industry and showed the significant impacts of academic research. The speech gave lots of inspiration to the participants. He also shared his experience on scientific writing and for graduate study application. Dr. Miller shared abundant research and teaching experience to the participants as well.

In addition, there were 15 students scheduled appointments to discuss personal career plans and academic research methods with Dr. Miller. Moreover, Dr. Miller also exchanged teaching and research experience with 10 faculty members. The academic visit also included field trips to visit Chia-Feng Organic Farm (Mr. Chia-Feng Li), Mei-Sheng Gardening (Mr. Chih-Sheng Chang) and King Car Orchid Garden. Dr. Miller discussed with growers about the problems on cultivation and storage of edible lily in Taiwan, the germination of cyclamen seeds and tissue culture on orchids. With his rich experiences, Dr. Miller solved growers' flower cultivation problems and delivered his suggestions on improving their cultivation techniques. Several students participated in the field trip and got close interaction and decent discussion with Dr. Miller.

The visit of Dr. Miller has brought to participants the latest bulb research results, most up-to-date industry information, and career planning suggestions to students. The college has signed a MOU for exchange student programs with Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The academic exchange activities will be strengthened in the future.