Weiwei Gao is a scientist specializing in biomaterials and nanomedicine at the University of California, San Diego. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Reviews Materials, and Nature Reviews Microbiology. In addition to his research, Weiwei is an accomplished scientific illustrator, with numerous journal covers to his credit.

Outside the lab, Weiwei is a passionate scuba diver and underwater photographer. His stunning underwater imagery has won awards and been featured in newspapers and magazines. Living near La Jolla Shores in La Jolla, California, he frequently explores the vibrant marine life of Southern California and beyond.

Weiwei earned his Ph.D. from Yale University, where he also discovered his love for scuba diving and obtained his diving certification at Diver’s Cove in Essex, Connecticut. Following his doctoral studies, he completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Division of Health Sciences and Technology. During his time in Boston, he spent summers diving in Cape Ann and later served as an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

Originally from Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, Weiwei grew up in a region known as the “Spring City” for its sunny, mild weather, reminiscent of San Diego. Yunnan’s rich cultural diversity, natural beauty, and abundant wildlife fostered his early fascination with the natural world. Weiwei later pursued his undergraduate studies at Tsinghua University, the top-ranked university in China, where his interest in photography deepened as a way to connect with nature.

Weiwei uses his camera to tell compelling underwater stories, capturing the hidden beauty of marine ecosystems. Beyond Southern California, he has dived in global destinations such as Mexico, the Philippines, and Canada. Weiwei aspires to explore some of the world’s most remote and challenging dive sites, using both photography and animation to share the wonders of the underwater world with a broader audience.