Pengyao is an Assistant Professor at the Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution and School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, who started her position in January 2024.
Before starting her own lab, Pengyao worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, working with Dr. Kelley Harris and Dr. Maitreya Dunham.
She did her Ph. D. at the Department of Ecology and Evolution of the University of Chicago (2010-2017), working with Dr. John Reinitz and Dr. Martin Kreitman.