Dr. Yiping Qi is an associate professor at the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received a BS degree in Microbiology from Nankai University, an MS degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a Ph.D. degree in Plant Biology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Dr. Qi is an expert on plant genome engineering. Funded by federal and private agencies, his lab has developed many CRISPR genome editing and reprogramming tools for enabling foundational and translational research in plants. These CRISPR tools have been published in over 40 peer-reviewed papers and 15 book chapters. The resulting CRISPR vectors have been deposited to the public repository, Addgene, and disseminated to the global research community in about 40 countries, which greatly facilitates research in plant science, synthetic biology, and crop breeding. Since 2011, Dr. Qi has given 3 keynote speeches and 70 invited institutional and conference talks. His recent recognitions include the NSF Plant Genome Early Career Award, FFAR New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award, SIVB Young Scientist Award, AGNR Dean’s Grantsmanship Award, AGNR Faculty Research Award, UMD Invention of the Year, and Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher.