Yunkai was born and raised in Jiangsu, China. He obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry at Fudan University, where he worked with Prof. Junliang Zhang and Prof. Junfeng Yang in the field of asymmetric catalysis by transition metal and phosphoric ligands and participated in the development of a ligand-enabled Pd-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of α-quaternary amino and glycolic acids derivatives. For his undergraduate thesis, he developed Nickel-catalyzed regio- and stereoselective defluorinative arylation of gem-difluorinated cyclopropanes. As for hobbies, he enjoys classical music and swimming.