Hou Mingcai, Han Chinese, born in October 1968 in Nanbu County, Sichuan Province, is a professor and doctoral supervisor who joined the Communist Party of China in December 1999. He oversees scientific and technological development, academic journals, science park management, military-civilian integration, social sciences, state-owned assets, and the university museum. Additionally, he assists President Xu Qiang in managing discipline development.

Hou’s academic journey began at East China University of Technology (formerly East China College of Geology), where he studied Uranium Ore Geological Exploration from September 1988 to July 1992. He then worked at the 217th Brigade of the Northwest Geological Bureau of the Nuclear Industry from July 1992 to September 1997. He continued his studies at CDUT, earning his master’s and doctoral degrees in Sedimentary Geology between September 1997 and July 2003. Since joining CDUT in July 2003, Hou has held various positions, including Assistant to the Dean of the School of Earth Sciences, Assistant to the Director of the Institute of Sedimentary Geology, Vice Director, and then Director of the Institute of Sedimentary Geology, and Dean of the Graduate School. He conducted postdoctoral research at the CDUT Postdoctoral Research Station for Geological Resources and Geological Engineering from May 2003 to December 2005. From January 2009 to June 2009, he served as a visiting scholar and invited professor at the Institute of Geology and Paleontology at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. In November 2020, he was appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC CDUT Committee and Vice President of CDUT.

Hou Mingcai’s research and teaching focus on deep-time sedimentology, paleogeographic reconstruction, and the exploration of deep and ultra-deep oil and gas resources. He has led nearly one hundred projects, including General Programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, collaborative research under the Basic Science Center Program, Guideline-Oriented Original Exploration Projects, major tasks under the National Science and Technology Major Projects, 973 Program projects, National Geological Survey projects, and various enterprise collaboration projects. His research has been widely published in journals such as Earth-Science Reviews, Geology, Geophysical Research Letters, GSA Bulletin, Precambrian Research, Gondwana Research, Lithos, and Global and Planetary Change, with over 200 papers published, more than 70 of which are indexed in the SCI database. He has also authored four textbooks and monographs. Hou has received several prestigious awards, including one Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, one First Prize of the Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, one Second Prize of the Land and Resources Science and Technology Award, and the Pei Xiu Gold Medal for Outstanding Map Works. His pioneering research on deep reservoirs and hydrocarbon accumulation in the Bohai Sea deep sub-basin led to the discovery of the Bozhong 19-6 gas field, which played a crucial role in CDUT’s contribution to winning the 2019 First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award for the project "Exploration Theory, Technology, and Major Discoveries of Large, Integrated Condensate Gas Fields in the Deep Layers of the Bohai Bay Basin." Hou has been recognized as a Leading Academic and Technological Talent in Sichuan Province, an Outstanding Expert with Significant Contributions to Sichuan Province, and an Innovation Leading Talent under the Tianfu Ten-Thousand Talents Program. He currently serves as the Director of the Key Laboratory of Deep-time Geographic Environment Reconstruction and Application of the Ministry of Natural Resources and as the Head of the Paleogeography Working Group for the International Big Science Program Deep-Time Digital Earth (DDE). His professional affiliations include membership in the Sedimentary Geology Professional Committee of the Geological Society of China and the China Petroleum Association Natural Gas Commission, as well as serving as Vice President of the Geological Society of Sichuan Province. He is also an editorial advisor for Ore and Energy Resource Geology and a member of the editorial boards of Geological Review, Natural Gas Industry, and Journal of Sedimentology, while also serving as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of *Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology.