Sheng-Mei Yang is currently a professor at the College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at Yangzhou University. She was awarded a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for a project titled “The effect of plants polyphenols on the food selection of two kinds of mammals inhabiting in alpine meadow ecosystem and the adaptation strategy of mammals to polyphenols”, from 2013 to 2016, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China for a project titled "The mechanism of the influence of tannins on the feeding behavior of Brandt’s voles (lasiopodomys brandtii)", from 2014 to 2016. Her research interests include co-evolution between animals and plants and mechanisms of animal behavior.