Shengli Yang , born in February 1983 in Inner Mongolia, China, is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and academic leader in mining engineering at the China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mining engineering from the same university in 2006 and 2009, respectively, and later completed a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics there in 2019. After starting his academic career as a teaching assistant in 2009, he advanced through ranks to become a full professor in 2021. His research portfolio centers on thick coal seam mining, mining pressure and ground control, and steeply inclined seam mining, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms and technologies of top‑coal caving—a pivotal method for efficient extraction in thick coal seams.