Professor Yaping Du is a professor at Nankai University and a recipient of both the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and the Excellent Young Scientists Fund. He is currently the Vice Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Director of the Tianjin Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials and Applications, and Executive Director of the Nankai University Research Center for Rare Earth and Inorganic Functional Materials. His research focuses on rare earth functional materials, encompassing both fundamental and applied studies. He has led and participated in various national research projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Tianjin Distinguished Youth Fund, and key Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei collaborative innovation projects. Professor Du has published more than 150 papers in top journals such as Science Advances, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Advanced Materials, and Chemical Society Reviews, with over 16,000 citations and an h-index of 68. Professor Du is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and holds key roles in academic organizations, including Vice Chair of the Rare Earth Crystal Committee of the Chinese Society of Rare Earths, and member of various committees within the society. He also serves as Associate Editor for RSC Advances and Frontiers in Chemistry, and is on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Rare Earths, Chinese Rare Earths, InfoMat, and Nano-Micro Letters.