CAS Oceanology Forum for Graduate Student was held in Qingdao from September 8-10, 2017. Four MME members participated in the forum. Zhi Zhu and Huiling Mo gave oral reports, and Yue Qiao and Mingyi Zhang presented their posters. It is worth mentioning that the poster named ‘The exploration of alkane biodegradation pathway in cyanobacteria’ from Yue Qiao was rated as an excellent poster.