Tang Chao, a chair professor at Peking University, serves as director of the Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies and head of the Center for Quantitative Biology. He is also the founding director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Sciences at the National Natural Science Foundation of China. 

Tang earned his bachelor's degree from the Department of Modern Mechanics at the University of Science and Technology of China and received his PhD in physics from the University of Chicago. In 2019, he was elected an academician at the Division of Mathematics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He once held a tenured full professorship at the University of California, San Francisco. 

Tang has made pioneering contributions in the fields of statistical physics, complex systems, physical biology and systems biology. Over the years, he has focused on applying physical principles and methods to biological issues, aiming to uncover quantitative laws and design principles in living systems. 

Tang proposed the scientific concept of self-organized criticality, developed the principle of designability in statistical physics of protein folding, uncovered universal principles underlying complex biological networks, and offered theoretical explanations for robustness in biological systems. 

He also formulated theoretical models related to cellular growth, division and fate determination, conducted mathematical and physical modeling and theoretical analysis of precision and robustness in embryonic development, and investigated how interactions among different cell types in pancreatic islets affect their functions.