1101 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
EDUCATION
* Postdoctoral fellow, July 1 1993 -- October 31, 1997, Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Joint Appointment, laboratories of Professors Walter Gilbert and Richard C. Lewontin, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
* Ph.D., Genetics, University of California, Davis. Degree received December 12, 1992. Dissertation: The origin and evolutionary mechanisms of new genes. Department of Genetics. Laboratory of Professor Charles Langley.
* M.S., Genetics, University of California, Davis. 1990.
* M.S., Plant Genetics, 1985, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an, Sichuan. Plant Quantitative Genetics Institute led by Professor Zhiren Gao.
* B.S., Agronomy, 1982, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an, Sichuan
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
* Full professor with tenure, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Committees on Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, and The College, The University of Chicago. Started on January 1, 2005.
* Senior Fellow, The Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology, The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, April 2007 – April 2012.
* The Dean’s Chair Professor, Tuft University (offered and declined), 2004.
* Associate Professor with tenure, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Committees on Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, and The College, The University of Chicago. July 1, 2003 – December 31, 2004.
* Assistant professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Committees on Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, and The College, The University of Chicago. November 1, 1997 – June 30, 2003.
* Postdoctoral research associate, Joint Appointment, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Walter Gilbert's laboratory) and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (R.C. Lewontin's laboratory), Harvard University, July 1993 -- October 31, 1997.
* Research Assistant, Department of Genetics and Center for Population Biology, UC Davis, 1988--1992.
* Teaching Associate, Principles of Genetics, UC Davis, 1989--1992.
RESEARCH INTERESTS AND IMPACTS
Origin and evolution of new genes:
* The phenotypic effects and functions of new genes and their roles in development.
* Evolutionary analysis of gene interactions with new genes;
* Copy number variation within Drosophila populations;
* Evolution of sex chromosomes and sex-related genes and the pattern of gene traffics.
* Genes and Genomes in plants: high origination rate of chimeric genes in the grass family.
Scientific impacts:
* Recognized for the start of the systematic investigation of new gene evolution.
* Contributed to the addition of the new chapters and sections about new gene evolution into major textbooks (e.g. Douglas Futuyma, 2005 and 2009, Evolution, Sinauer, Massachusetts; Wen-Hsiung Li, 1997, Molecular Evolution, Sinauer, Massachusetts; Roderic Page and Edward Holmes, 1998, Molecular Evolution. Blackwell Science London).
Social impacts:
* New York Times, Washington Times, Sacramento Bee, La Vanguardia, New Scientist, Scientist, Discover, and other news media in US and Europe reported my scientific discovers.
* Our new gene research results in a Nature Rev Genet article were cited as evidence in a successful defense of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in the nationally famous case of Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area School District et al in Pennsylvania.
HONORS
* Allen G. Marr Prize for the Best Ph.D. Dissertation of the University of California, Davis, 1993.
* David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, 1998.
* National Science Foundation CAREER award, 2003.
* Elected as the council Secretary officer for the major international academic organization in the field of molecular and genomic evolution: Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE), 2010-2012.
* Elected into the Board of Directors of the Chinese Biological Investigator Society (CBIS) in USA in 2009.
