Kaijing Zhang, PhD, Associate Professor at Anhui Science and Technology University. He is honored as Young Top Talent of Anhui High-end Talent Cultivation Program and University-level Young Zhongdu Scholar. He earned his BSc from South China Agricultural University in 2013 and PhD from Nanjing Agricultural University in 2019, and joined Anhui Science and Technology University in 2020. His core research covers omics analysis, genome-wide gene family identification, molecular marker development, gene mapping and functional verification of key agronomic traits in cucurbit crops. He also focuses on crop germplasm genetic diversity and plant stress tolerance, exploring the application of biostimulants to improve crop resistance. Dr. Zhang has presided over multiple research projects including the Youth Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Anhui Provincial Excellent Youth Project and several provincial key laboratory open funds. As the first or corresponding author, he has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles in authoritative journals such as Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Plant Science, Scientia Horticulturae, BMC Plant Biology and BMC Genomics.