Dr. Yichen (Serena) Dai, a STC alumna, majored in Molecular Biotechnology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Most of her undergraduate work focused on plant domestication and gene evolution, making use of comparative analysis methods to understand how domesticated soybean lost its resistance to drought and high salt conditions compared to its wild relatives, the multiple wild soybean species commonly found in northern China. Apart from research in the lab, Serena valued her time in Hong Kong and took every opportunity to learn more about Hong Kong society. She led university events gathering local and non-local students together, participated in volunteer work with asylum seekers in Hong Kong, and organized events for underprivileged primary school children in the Northern Territories. Serena was awarded the Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship for her academic achievements and participation in extracurricular events. Serena was elected as the 2016 Hong Kong Rhodes Scholar, and after graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with First Class Honors, she went on to pursue a DPhil in Zoology at the University of Oxford. Her DPhil work focused on gene evolution in a desert rodent, the fat sand rat, a common rodent found in desert areas around the Middle East and North Africa and also used as an animal model to study diet-induced diabetes in a laboratory setting. She made use of genome sequencing results which uncovered that the sand rat possessed lots of “weird” genes with changes not found in any other vertebrate animal, and focused on finding out what these “weird” genes and their unusual protein products do. Serena’s research uncovered a previously overlooked relationship between the DNA molecule, gene function, and diabetes. Aside from lab-based research, Serena enjoyed the many opportunities in and around Oxford to meet researchers around the world and scientists that worked on other exciting topics. She was awarded the Verne Chapman Young Scientist award by the International Mammalian Genome Society in 2019, and she was also amongst the eight DPhil students selected by the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution to present her work at the Walter Fitch Symposium. As a Rhodes Scholar, Serena greatly enjoyed her time at Rhodes House. She was eager to start the tradition of organizing Spring Festival dinners open to all Scholars there, and very much valued the opportunity to chat with Scholars from all over the world. Serena became a Scholar Facilitator in her final year at Oxford, a role aiming to help the administrative and Scholar affairs team at Rhodes House better understand the needs of Scholars, and to help plan and design events at Rhodes House. After graduating from Oxford, Serena joined the Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a postdoctoral researcher. She is currently working on evolution of the insulin/insulin-like peptide pathway in vertebrate animals. Having benefited greatly from learning to communicate and reaching out to other students from various backgrounds during her time as an undergraduate, Serena is keen to help STC grow and she hopes that more students will be able to benefit from STC events.