Degang Xu was born in Jiaonan, Qingdao, Shandong, China, in 1974. He received the B.S. degree in applied electronic technology and the M.S. degree in physical electronics in 1998 and 2001, respectively,both from Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China, and the Ph.D. degree in physical electronics from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2005. In 2005, he joined Tianjin University as an Assistant of precision instruments and opto-electronic engineering. In 2006, he was appointed as a Visiting Scholar at Manchester University, Manchester, U.K. Since 2007, he has been an Associate Professor. He has published more than 100 refereed journal articles in optoelectronics, nonlinear optics, and high-power laser. His current research interests include terahertz generation, amplification and detection, and their applications.