Biography
I completed my undergraduate studies at the Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China (usually known as USTC in Hefei, China), and graduated with B.S. degree in Applied Physics in July 2005.
Starting from September 2005, I became one of the graduate students at the Department of Physics, Indiana University Bloomington (abbreviated as IU) and received my Master’s degree in physics in February 2007. I am currently a Ph.D. student following the “physics Ph.D. — biophysics track” provided by the Biocomplexity Institute, and my Ph.D. minor is Informatics.
During my study in IU I joined the Center for Complex Networks and Systems (CNetS) in School of Informatics and Computing, and my research interests involve the study of mathematical epidemiology. I am working in the GLEaM (GLobal Epidemic and Mobility metapopulation model) team, focus on the study of multiscale mobility infrastructures and the global spread of emerging infectious diseases.
I am also a member of the CX-Nets Collaboratory – a virtual collaboratory of three research groups from the USA and across Europe that pursue the same research agenda in close collaboration, despite their far apart geographical locations.
Starting in April 2010, I will work full-time as a computational epidemiologist at Intellectual Ventures Lab, an invention company in Bellevue, WA, which was founded by the former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold in 2000. The project I will be working on is to work closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on malaria and other infectious diseases. The ambitious goal is to eventually eradicate malaria, polio, and other diseases all over the world, especially in the undeveloped regions. I hope I am able to use my expertise and experience of mathematics, computer science and epidemiology to contribute efforts on the global public health issues.
