Mingji Dai received his B.S. degree from Peking University in 2002. After two years’ research with Professors Zhen Yang and Jiahua Chen in the same university, he went to New York City in 2004 and pursued graduate study under the guidance of Professor Samuel J. Danishefsky at Columbia University. After earning his Ph.D. degree in 2009, he took a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Professor Stuart L. Schreiber at Harvard University and the Broad Institute. In August 2012, he began his independent career as an assistant professor in the Chemistry Department and Center for Cancer Research of Purdue University. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2018 and full professor in 2020. He was previously a Showalter Faculty Scholar of Purdue University. His research program focuses on developing novel catalytic methodologies and strategies to streamline the synthesis of complex natural products and other medicinally important molecules. His recent awards include the 2022 Purdue University College of Science Research Award, the 2020 Arthur E. Kelly Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Amgen Young Investigators’ Award, the Eli Lilly Grantee Award, the 2017 Chinese-American Chemistry & Chemical Biology Professors Association (CAPA) Distinguished Junior Faculty Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the 2015 Organic Letters Outstanding Author of the Year Lectureship Award, and the 2015 Thieme Chemistry Journal Award.