Prof. Yaodong Yang obtained his Ph.D. in Plant Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) in 2004. Presently, he serves as the head of the Biotechnology Division at the Coconut Research Institute of CATAS. Prior to his current role, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher for 5 years at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Delaware Biotechnology Institute in the USA. Prof. Yang possesses a strong background in molecular biology, with a research focus on cold-responsive and adaptation mechanisms in tropical oil crops, as well as fatty acid synthesis and metabolism regulation. He has a keen interest in the development of molecular markers, functional gene and trait analysis for tropical oil crops, and the association and positioning of important agronomic traits QTL in these crops. Over the past years, he has published more than 16 papers in top journals such as The Plant Cell, Nature Cell Biology, and Current Biology, all indexed in SCI.