Yidong Huang got his Ph.D. from Strathclyde University in 1997. He became a professor at Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FIRSM), Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. He is currently a member of the council of Chinese Optical Society. His research interests include laser and luminescence properties of rare earth and transition metal ions in solids; new laser and non-linear crystals, laser glasses, solid luminescence materials, and related devices. He has been working in the field of laser crystal and solid state laser since 1987, as the leading scientist of the research group of laser crystal and solid state laser from 2004. He has published more than 200 articles in SCI indexed journals, and owns more than 20 patents. As a partner, he got one Second Class Prize of China's national science and technology progress and one First Class Prize of scientific and technological progress of Chinese Academy of Sciences.