Yuk-Ching Tse-Dinh is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida International University. She received her PhD in Biological Chemistry from Harvard University in 1982. She established her fundamental research program as Principal Investigator in Central Research and Development at E. I. DuPont before she returned to academia to continue her discoveries on topoisomerases which are targets of WHO essential medicines for treating cancer and infectious diseases. Her research program has been funded since 1990 by government, industry, and philanthropy. She is the inventor of multiple patents on novel small molecule inhibitors with anticancer and antibacterial activity. She came to FIU in 2012 as the Founding Director of the Biomolecular Sciences Institute to facilitate transdisciplinary collaborations for faculty across FIU Colleges. She also established the Translational Molecular Discoveries Program as an FIU Emerging Preeminent Program.