Tao Ye obtained his PhD from Queen's University, Belfast (QUB) (1993). After pursuing a post-doctoral stay (1993-1994) with Professor Tony McKervey at QUB, he moved to Nottingham University (1994-1998) as a "Realising our Potential Award" (ROPA) fellow to engage in the total synthesis of marine natural products, working with Professor Gerry Pattenden, FRS. He started his independent career in 1998, initially at The University of Hong Kong and then joined The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2001. In 2015, he moved to Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School where as a Professor of Chemical Biology and has served as Deputy Dean of the School of Chemical Biology & Biotechnology. His research interests span the disciplines of natural product synthesis, chemical biology, synthetic biology and drug discovery, which include the discovery and development of new agents of medicinal value through major advances in chemical synthesis and biosynthesis. In addition to the completion of total synthesis of 80 natural products, he is well-known for contributions to the structural revision of the misassigned natural products. He received a "Xiaoyu Hu Memorial Award”, a “WuXi PharmaTech Life Science and Chemistry Award”, and has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.