He received his B.E. degree in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University, China, in 2001. He then obtained his M.S. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004, and his Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2010, both in Mechanical Engineering. He has received the 2008 R&D 100 Award for his Ph.D. work on high-thermoelectric-performance nano structured bismuth antimony telluride bulk alloys. Currently, he is serving on the editorial board of Journal of Aeronautics and Aerospace Engineering.