Ph.D. in Physics, Dec. 2010, Advisor: Dr. Taekjip Ha, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

M.A. in Physics, May 2005, George Washington University, USA

B.S. in Applied Physics, Jul. 2001, Xi'an Jiaotong University , China

Experience

• Assistant Professor, 2015-2021, Department of Cancer Biology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati OH,  USA

• Postdoctoral Research Associate / Research Specialist, 2011-2015, Supervisor: Dr. Axel T. Brunger, Stanford University & Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford CA, USA

• Visiting Student, Spring & Summer 2010, Lab leader: Dr. Tae-Young Yoon, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, Daejeon, South Korea

Honors

• World's Top 2% Scientists for single-year impact, 2022-2024 (Stanford University, USA & Elsevier, Netherlands).

• Sigma Xi Young Investigator Award, 2022 (University of Cincinnati Chapter, USA).

• College of Medicine Research Rising Star Award, 2019 (University of Cincinnati, USA).    

• Dr. David Millhorn Innovation Award, 2018 (PJ Parkinson's Support Group of Blount County, USA).

• IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Biological Physics, 2017 (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics).

• L.S. Edelheit Family Fellowship, 2010 (University of Illinois, USA).

• Excellence in Teaching Award, 2009 (University of Illinois, USA).

• Colgate-Palmolive Graduate Award, 2008 (Colgate-Palmolive Co. & Univ. of Illinois, USA).

• Chinese Government Award for outstanding self-financed student abroad, 2007 (China).

• Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Prize, 2005 (Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation, Switzerland).

• GW Fellowship, 2003-2005 (George Washington University, USA).

• Bell Atlantic Fellowship, 2002, 2003 (Verizon Co. & George Washington University, USA).

• Grand Prize of the 7th National “Challenge Cup” Competition, 2001 (China).

Services

    Membership

• American Physical Society

• Biophysical Society

• IEEE

    Symposium organizer 

• Mar. 2023, Imaging biopolymers and biological assemblies in living systems. American Chemical Society Spring Meeting, Indianapolis IN, USA. 

• Oct. 2022, Subcellular dynamics in cancer. University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati OH, USA. 

• Spet. 2019, The cross-talk between membrane and protein. 1st International Conference on Biomechanics and Medical Engineering (ICBME 2019), San Diego CA, USA.

    Grant reviewer 

• National Science Center, Poland

• Swiss National Science Foundation

• Medical Research Council, the United Kingdom Research and Innovation 

• Genomics Network, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the United Kingdom Research and Innovation

• Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China

• Graduate Women in Science 

• French National Research Agency

    Journal editor

• npj Soft Matter (editorial board member), 2025-present

• Nano Life (editorial board member), 2023-present

• Bioengineering (editorial board member), 2022-2024

• Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews (guest editor), 2022-2023

• BMC Biology, 2021-present

• Journal of Molecular Biology (guest editor), 2021-2023

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (guest editor), 2021-present 

• Current Neuropharmacology ("neurotransmitters" section), 2021-present

• Frontiers in Neuroscience ("neurodegeneration" section), 2019-present

• Scientific Reports, 2017-present

• PLOS ONE, 2017-present

• Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 2015-present

• PeerJ, 2015-2017

• Physical Biology (guest editor), 2015

    Journal reviewer 

Accounts of Materials Research, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ACS Materials Letters, ACS Nano, ACS Sensors, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, Advanced Biosystems, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, Advanced Electronic Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Aggregate, Aging, AIP Advances, Analytical Chemistry, Applied Nanoscience, Applied Physics Letters, Autophagy, BBA Biomembranes, Biochemistry, Biochemical Journal, Biophysical Journal, Biophysics Reports, Biomaterials, Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, BMC Biochemistry, Briefings in Bioinformatics, Carbohydrate Polymers, CCS Chemistry, Cell, Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, Cell Chemical Biology, Cell Reports, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, ChemNanoMat, ChemPhysChem, Chemical & Biomedical Imaging, Chemical Communications, Chemical Science, Chinese Chemical Letters, Chinese Physics B, Chinese Physics Letters, Communications Biology, Computers in Biology and Medicine, Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, Current Neuropharmacology, Developmental Cell, Elife, EMBO Journal, FEBS Journal, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Frontiers in Neurology, Frontiers in Neuroscience, International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, International Journal of Radiation Biology, iScience, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences, Journal of Materials Chemistry, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Journal of Molecular Biology, Journal of Nanomaterials, Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Separation Science, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Journal of Visualized Experiments, Light Science & Applications, Materials Today Bio, Microchimica Acta, Modern Physics Letters B, Molecular and Cellular Probes, Molecular Neurobiology, Nano Letters, Nano Life, Nano Research, Nanomedicine, Nanoscale, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Letters, Nanotechnology, National Science Review, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Neurochemistry International, Nucleic Acids Research, Oncotarget, Opto-Electronic Advances, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Physica Scripta, PLOS Biology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Protein & Peptide Letters, Protein Science, Science China Chemistry, Science China Life Sciences, Science China Materials, Scientific Reports, Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, Small, Small Methods, Small Structures, Soft Matter, View.