Dr. Xiao-Ya CHEN was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. He graduated from Nanjing University (1982), obtained Ph.D. from Reading University, UK (1985), and conducted postdoctoral research in Tübingen University, Germany (1991-1992) and in Purdue University, USA (1992-1994). He is currently the professor of Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, President of Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, the Vice President of Chinese Society for Plant Physiologists and member (academician) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his research interests include plant secondary metabolism and cotton biology. He has published more than 50 papers, including those in Nature Biotechnology, Plant Cell, Plant Journal, and Plant Physiology.