He is also an associate of the U.S. DOE’s Ames Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electronic Science and Technology from the Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University in 2004. His doctoral dissertation was on MEMS based infrared imaging sensors. Before joining the faculty of ISU in 2007, he was a postdoc in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison, developing micro-optical and microfluidic devices.