Professor Zongwei Cai received a BSc degree in Chemistry from Xiamen University, China in 1982 and Ph.D. degree in Analytical Chemistry in 1990 from University of Marburg, Germany. From 1991 to 2000, he worked at the University of Nebraska and Glaxo-Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company. Since 2001, he has been affiliated with Hong Kong Baptist University, Kwok Yat Wai Endowed Chair in Environmental and Biological Analysis, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis and Dioxin Analysis Laboratory.

He was awarded the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Overseas) in 2003, received a national high-level talent recognition in 2013, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2021, Member of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea, MAE) in 2023, and Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society (FCCS) in 2024. His honors also include the Natural Science Award (Second Class) in the Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) from the Ministry of Education (2018), the Top Prize in Science and Technology from the China Association for Instrumental Analysis (2020), and the State Natural Science Award (Second Class, 5th rank) in 2011.