Kai joined the UW–Madison Department of Biochemistry in January 2021 as an Assistant Scientist in the Cryo-EM Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in Material Science & Engineering in Tsinghua University in China. Following that, she worked as a postdoctoral chemist at the University of Tokyo and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan, working on new chemical route fabrication of functional materials. In the past years Kai had been working on Materials characterization by using Electron Microscopy (TEM/SEM/STEM) and new materials by green chemistry at BCPCA in Beijing. Kai’s current research interests are in supporting the Cryo-EM Research Center in defining structure-function questions on biological and chemical samples.