Derong Cao received his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Meier at the University of Mainz, Germany, and Prof. Li at Lanzhou University in 1997. He then became an Associate Professor at Lanzhou University, and in 2002 a Full Professor at Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Now, he is a Professor in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices and Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, China. Since 2008 he has been head of the Department of Chemistry. His main scientific interests, documented in over 180 papers, focus on organic functional molecules and materials.