Co-director of CEPAMS, the Institute of Genetics and Development Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Vice President of CWAST, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Member of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS)

Dr. Cao, plant epigeneticist, won the State Natural Science Award (2nd Class) in 2019. She was elected member of the Committee on Agricultural and Rural Affairs of the 13th National Committee of CPPCC in 2018 and foreign member of National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2020. She has long been engaged in plant epigenetics research and has made many breakthrough achievements in the fields of plant DNA methylation, hertone covalent modification and small molecule RNA. She has published more than 100 papers with more than 18,000 citations (Google scholar) and an H factor of 64.