Dr. Chao Yan is a Professor at School of Pharmacy, Shanghai JiaoTong University. He is also the Chairman and CEO of Unimicro Technologies, Inc. in the USA. In 1985, he was sponsored by the Chinese government to come to Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA and became a graduate student in Dr. Daniel Martire’s group in Chemistry Department. His research was focused on the development of a molecular theory of chromatography and its applications in gas, liquid, and supercritical fluid chromatography. It also involved theoretical and experimental research in thermodynamics, statistical thermodynamics, and liquid crystal. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1991 and moved to Europe and became a post-doctor in Dr. Fritz Erni’s Department of Analytical R&D of Sandoz Pharma Ltd, Switzerland. His research interests included the development of electrokinetic separation techniques and their applications in pharmaceutical analysis using capillary electrochromatography (CEC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), micellar electrokenitic chromatography (MEKC) and micro-HPLC. He came back to the USA in 1993 and jointed Dr. Richard Zare's group at Stanford University and Sandia National Labs in California as a Research Associate. He is renowned for his research in the area of CEC and advanced laser detection technology in separation and analysis of pharmaceutical, environmental, biological, and forensic samples. He was also involved in the development of multiple lanes DNA sequencing with capillary gel electrophoresis coupled with laser scanning techniques. With experimental and theoretical studies he has made great contribution to the research and development of CEC. Dr. Yan has more than 180 publications and has been invited to speak in more than 40 international conferences. He holds 30 patents in design and manufacturing of scientific instruments and capillary columns, contributing significantly to solving a variety of problems in chemical and biological analyses. Dr. Chao Yan has been involved deeply in academic research in China. He is currently serving as Deputy General Secretary of Chinese Chromatography Association and Associate Editor in Chief of Chinese Journal of Chromatography. He is also the associate director of California Separation Science Society (CaSSS). Since 1996, he has been an adjunct Professor at Tsinghua University and co-mentored many Ph.D. students and post-doctors. He was the principle investigator of more than 30 projects sponsored by the national and local governments. As one of the successful candidates of “Hundred Talent Program” by the Chinese government, he was appointed to a full professorship in 2000 in the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yan has also obtained numerous awards in both academics and industry.