Research in Prof. Chunming Cui's group focused on the synthesis and structures of main-group and rare-earth compounds and their applications in synthesis, functional materials and catalysis. We are particularly interested in the boron and silicon carbene analogues, multiply bonded species and conjugated and aromatic heterocycles of boron and silicon as well as low-coordinate rare-earth complexes with high activity and selectivity for catalytic applications. We have developed some interesting and powerful main-group and rare-earth systems for luminescent materials, dinitrogen activations, catalytic hydroelementation (mainly hydrosilylation and hydrophosphination) and heteroatom cross-coupling reactions.