Mei,Hong was born in Guizhou and grew up in Guizhou. He received a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics (NUAA) in 1984 and 1987 respectively, and a Doctorate degree in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1992.
From 1987 to 1989, he was working at NUAA as a research assistant. In 1992, he joined in Peking University (PKU) as a post-doctoral research fellow. From 1994 to present, he was working at the Department of Computer Science and Technology and the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science in PKU, and became an associate professor in 1994 and full professor in 1997. In 2005, he became a "Chang Jiang Scholars Program" professor of Ministry of Education. In 2011, he was elected as a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2013, he was elected as a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences: for the advancement of science in developing countries. In 2014, he was elevated to IEEE Fellow. He was the dean of School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science at PKU from 2006-2014. He is the director of Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies of Ministry of Education (MOE) at PKU. He was appointed as a vice president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University from 2013-2016. Now he is a vice president of Beijing Institute of Technology.
His current research is on Software Engineering and System Software. In his academic career, Hong Mei was awarded many times due to his contributions to research and teaching.