Tianning Diao is a Professor of Chemistry at New York University (NYU). She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2012, followed by postdoctoral research at Princeton University from 2012 to 2014. Since her appointment at NYU in 2014, Diao's research has been focused on understanding the mechanisms of nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions and developing new methodologies to address challenges in organic synthesis and sustainable energy conversion. Her work has advanced understanding of radical initiation, propagation, and bond formation processes mediated by nickel catalysts. Furthermore, her insights into ligand effects have inspired the design of new ligands that facilitate nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. More recently, she has applied these methods to the modification of biomolecules. Diao is the recipient of multiple awards, including the NSF-CAREER award (2016), Sloan Research Fellowship (2018), Chinese-American Chemistry Professors Association Distinguished Junior Faculty Award (2018), Organometallics Distinguished Author Award (2018), Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2019), and the Cope Scholar Award (2023).