Xiao-Shui Peng received his Bachelor and M.Phil degree from Lanzhou University in 1999 and 2002, respectively, under Professor Xin-Fu Pan’s guidance. In 2006, he obtained his PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he worked on the total synthesis of pallavicinin under the supervision of Professor Henry N. C. Wong. After completing his postdoctoral research fellowship with Professor K. C. Nicolaou and Dr. David Y. K. Chen on the cortistatins project at CSL@Biopolis, Singapore, he returned to CUHK as a Research Assistant Professor in 2009. He is now Research Associate Professor of CUHK, and is focusing his research themes on the development of novel “bio-inspired” strategies and methodologies for the total synthesis of structurally complex and biologically significant natural products.