Ding Ma was born in Sichuan, a southwest province in China. He read chemistry in Sichuan University (1996), and obtained his Ph.D in 2001 from the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (2001, Prof. Xinhe Bao & Prof. Yide Xu). After his postdoctoral stay in Oxford University (Prof. M.L.H. Green) and University of Bristol (Prof. Stephen Mann), he started his research career in Dalian Institute of Chemistry as associate professor (2005). He was promoted as a full professor in 2007 and moved to Peking University in 2009. His research interests are heterogeneous catalysis, especially those related with energy issues, including C1 chemistry (methane, CO2 and syngas conversion), new reaction route for sustainable chemistry and the development of in-situ spectroscopic method that can be operated at working reaction condition to study reaction mechanism. He is the Advisory Member for various journals including Journal of Energy Chemistry, Science Bulletin, Catalysis Science & Technology, Joule, Applications in Energy and Combustion Science, Innovation, Chem Catalysis, Discover Chemical Engineering. He is Associate Editor for ACS Catalysis and Chinese Journal of Chemistry, and have been elected as the Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2016.
In addition to his work as a Chemist, Ding Ma has served as part-time photographer for Quivertree Limited (http://www.quivertree.com).
Ding Ma currently lives and works in Beijing.