“科学非常大。你知道的每一点都可能是未来别人的基础，一点点滚雪球，就是科学的前进。”
"Science is limitless. Every little bit uncovered may form the basis for the next person’s work in the future, and accumulating knowledge bit by bit is how science moves forward.”

　山东青岛人。古哺乳动物学及新生代地层学家。1984年获德国美茵兹古登堡大学博士学位。主要从事新生代地层和哺乳类化石研究，证明了古新统在中国的广泛存在，是七十年代古生物界的重大突破之一；在山西榆社、兰州盆地、临夏盆地等地发现了多个不同层位的哺乳动物群；将中国新近系分出15个有代表性的哺乳动物群层位，和欧洲的17个哺乳动物带相对应，使该年代的生物与地层研究再次跻身国际前列。主持编写了《中国古脊椎动物志》。2005年当选中科院院士。曾获中国古生物学会终身成就荣誉等。曾任古脊椎所第五任所长。

Dr. Qiu Zhanxiang was born in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and he is a paleomammalogist and Cenozoic stratigrapher. He received his Ph.D. from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany in 1984. Specializing in the study of Cenozoic stratigraphy and mammalian fossils, Qiu has proved the widespread existence of Paleocene deposits in China, which is one of the major breakthroughs in the paleontological community during the 1970s. In Yushe, Shanxi Province, the Lanzhou Basin, and Linxia Basin, he discovered several mammalian faunas in different strata. He divided the Chinese Neogene System into 15 representative mammalian faunal ages, which correspond to the 17 mammalian biostratigraphic ages in Europe, leading the Chinese paleontological and stratigraphic study of the Neogene Period. He led the writing of Paleovertebrata Sinica. Qiu was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. Qiu also received the Lifetime Achievement Honor of the Paleontological Society of China, and served as the fifth director of the IVPP.