On May 23, Prof. Hal Alper of University of Texas at Austin was honored Zhang Dayu Young Investigator Lectureship (II) by our institute. With the hosting by Prof. Yongjin Zhou, Prof. Hal Alper delivered academic lecture entitled "Engineering an expanded chemical palette in cells" , which is also one of the academic activities of DICP 70th anniversary. (Text by Yunxia Li, Image by Wansheng Liu)