He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chongqing University, China, and Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, respectively, all in Mechanical Engineering. He served as an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Southwest Petroleum University in China. In addition to his academic job, Dr. Du assumed a mechanical engineer position at two companies. He has received many grants from NSF and other funding organizations in support of his research in the area of design under uncertainty and reliability.