He obtained his bachelor and master degrees from Tsinghua University of China and Ph.D. from Northwestern University of the U.S. His research concerns synthesis and property study of nanomaterials and semiconductors, and their applications for photonics, energy conversion and storage, with current interest particularly in carbon and oxides based nanostructures for Li-ion and Li-S batteries. He has published around 80 peer-reviewed papers in these fields and holds more than 10 U.S. patents and patents-in-pending.