Yi Cao currently works at the Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructure, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. He received his Bachelor’s degree in 2001 and his Master’s degree in 2004 from Nanjing University. He then obtained his Ph.D. in 2009 from the University of British Columbia. He is devoted to building a better understanding of the design principles of naturally occurring biomaterials with outstanding mechanical properties and to engineering synthetic soft materials with similar or even superior mechanical properties. His work has been recognized by several awards, including the 2014 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Biological Physics, the “2018 Young Innovator Award in Nanobiotechnology” by Nano Research, and the 2019 Young Scientist Award from the Biomedical Polymer Materials Division of the Chinese Society for Biomaterials.