Yao was born in Lanzhou, China and her hometown is very famous for beef noodles. In 2008, she attended Tianjin Normal University as an undergraduate student and did undergraduate research with Professor Qingxiang Liu. In 2012, she flew across the Pacific Ocean and joined Professor Kevin Brown’s research group. She is now working on enantioselective/chirality transfer [2+2] cycloadditions with allenes. In her free time, Yao enjoys running, watching movies, and playing guitar.
“Be yourself.” – Unknown