Dong was born in 1977 in Zhongjiang, Sichuan Province, China. He obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Beijing Normal University in 1999. He continued his postgraduate study under the supervision of Professor Zhenzhong Yang in Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which won him an MSc in Polymer Physics and Chemistry in 2002. Then he moved to the University of Bristol, England to pursue a PhD in the colloid group under the supervision of Professor Terence Cosgrove. After awarded a PhD in 2005 he continued to work as a research assistant in School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. In 2006-2008 he was in the University of Kent at Canterbury campus, working as a research associate in the field of biomedical materials. After taking a Lecturer position in the University of Geneva, Switzerland, he moved back to China and has been a full-time professor in the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences since May 2009.