DeKALB | Associate chemistry professor Qingwei Yao was arrested Friday in an Internet sex sting by Kankakee County police officers.

NIU police were informed of Yao’s arrest on Friday afternoon, according to an official NIU statement. Yao was charged with six counts of indecent solicitation of a child on the Internet and is free after posting a $10,000 bond, according to The Daily Journal, a newspaper in Kankakee.

According to The Daily Journal, the “girl” Yao was talking to in a chat room was really a police officer with the newly-formed Kankakee County Cyber Crimes Task Force.

Yao has been placed on temporary administrative leave pending the completion of police investigations and university review, according to an official NIU statement.

As of press time, faculty in the chemistry department said they were instructed not to comment on the situation.