He obtained his PhD degree from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University in 2010. Dr. Cao held a Miller Research Fellowship at the University of California Berkeley for one year prior to joining the faculty of NC State. His research focuses on the controlled scalable synthesis of 2D TMDC materials as well as the photonics and catalysis of these materials. Dr. Cao has published 50+ journal publications with 4600+ citations and a H-index of 27. He has won numerous prestigious awards, including NSF CAREER Award, Young Investigator Award from the Army Research Office, and Miller Research Fellowship.