Rao Yi

Rao Yi (born 1962) is a Chinese neurobiologist.

Rao was born in Jiangxi in 1962.

In college, he was friends with Mei Lin, who also became a neurobiologist later.

In graduate school at Shanghai Medical University, Rao was roommates with Lu Bai, now also an eminent neurobiologist.

At SMU, his interests began to turn to molecular neurobiology.

In 1985, Rao enrolled as a graduate student at the University of California, San Francisco.

He describes the atmosphere at UCSF as far more exciting than that to which he had previously been exposed in China.

His advisors were Yuh-Nung and Lily Jan. He discovered the big brain gene, which is required for a binary decision in neural development: to form a neuron or an epidermal cell.

He defended his doctoral thesis on molecular and genetic analysis of intercellular communication in Drosophila neurogenesis at UCSF in 1991.

After graduating from UCSF, Rao received a Helen Hay Whitney fellowship for postdoctoral research in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard University, where he worked on embryonic induction in vertebrates.

He then joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis in 1994, where he established his first laboratory.

While in the U.S., he began his involvement with academia in China, working with Lu Bai and Mei Lin to establish a joint lab in Shanghai in 1995.

In 1997, Rao discovered that a single origin gave rise to two eyes in frog and chicken embryos.

In 1999, he demonstrated that the secreted protein encoded by the Slit gene was a repellent guidance cue for axons.

He has later found that Slit could repel migrating neurons, chemotactic leukocytes and brain tumor cells.

Rao has uncovered major components in the signal transduction pathways for Slit and the axon attractant Netrin.

In China, Rao switched to studies of molecular and cellular mechanisms of behaviors and has found neurotransmitters required for aggression and courtship in Drosophila and the mouse.

Rao Yi is one of the leading reformers of science and education in China.

He participated directly in the reform or establishment of five institutes and writes about science and culture for a wide audience.

They then joined Mu-ming Poo of UC Berkeley on a proposal to establish the Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai in 1999.

Other honours he received include the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fellowship in Neuroscience in 2000, as well as the Charles B. Wilson Brain Tumor Research Excellence Award in Neuroscience.

In 2002, Rao and Uli Schwarz of the Max Planck Institute established the Shanghai Institute of Advanced Studies at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for which they served as co-directors till 2005.

He moved to Northwestern University in Chicago in 2004, and was named the university's first Elsa A. Swanson Research Professor in 2006.

In 2004, Xiaodong Wang, Xingwang Deng and Rao established the National Institute of Biological Sciences, for which Rao served as an Associate Director for Academic Affairs until 2009.

In 2004, Rao, Bai Lu and Chenlu Tsou advocated for changes in China's system of grants for scientific research, questioning the involvement of bureaucrats and the emphasis on connections rather than merit in a paper which suggested alternatives to the Mid-to-Long Term Plan of Science and Technology.

A Ph.D. graduate from the University of California, San Francisco, Rao held a Helen Hay Whitney fellowship at Harvard University and was on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis and Northwestern University before moving back to China to take up the deanship of Peking University's School of Life Sciences in 2007.

He is currently Director and Principal Investigator of IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Peking University.

He also served on the editorial board of The Journal of Neuroscience, Developmental Biology, Developmental Brain Research, Neuroscience Research. He moved back to China in 2007 to be the dean of Peking University's School of Life Sciences.

Since 2007, Rao successfully established the tenure track system in the School of Life Sciences, with international peer reviews of academic merits as the important criteria for hiring, promotion and firing.

In 2009, two years after his return to China, Rao renounced his U.S. citizenship; in a written statement to the U.S. embassy in Beijing during that process, he criticized the US government for its behaviors after the September 11th attacks.

He levelled sharper criticisms in a 2010 Science editorial with fellow ex-American Shi Yigong which drew widespread focus to corruption and embezzlement from research funds.

The Ministry of Science and Technology disputed Shi and Rao's claims, stating that there was "zero tolerance" for misconduct.

The year after the article, both Rao and Shi failed to be named to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the first round of voting among members in its biennial membership elections.

Rao and Shi's failure to be named among the 145 candidates on the longlist for membership was widely believed to be tied to their criticisms, and in response Rao announced in a post on ScienceNet.cn that he would refuse to stand for election to the CAS again in the future.

In 2012, Rao and Shi Yigong established PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, with Rao serving as the Director of Peking part and Shi as the Director of the Tsinghua part.

He stepped down from the deanship in 2013.

In 2013, Rao established the PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Peking University and serves as its Founding Director.

In 2018, Rao established the Chinese Institute for Brain Research (CIBR) at Beijing and serves as its Founding Director.

He took office as the President of the Capital Medical University on June 25, 2019.

In 2019, Rao was appointed the President of the Capital Medical University.