Xiaoqiang Yu, is now an associate professor at the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, China. He received his B.Sc. degree from Fushun Institute of Petroleum, China in 1999. He then moved to Japan and in 2006 received his Ph.D. degree from Hokkaido University, Japan under the supervision of Prof. M. Miyashita, studying the total synthesis of natural product. He was a postdoctoral fellow from 2006 to 2009 with Prof. N. Miyaura at Hokkaido University, Japan, where he was involved in the transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions with boronic acids. He is now an associate professor at the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, China. His research interests focus on the development of new methodologies for the synthesis of biologically important heterocycles.