He received his PhD in chemistry from Miami University, U.S.A. in 1999 and B.S. in chemical engineering (emphasis on electrochemical engineering) from Tianjin University, China in 1982. Before joining the university, he was a principal research scientist at Battelle Memorial Institute and worked on fuel cell R&D as well as Li-ion batteries and artificial lung from 2006 to 2007. Prior to Battelle, as the program manager and senior electrochemical engineer at Cabot Corp, he worked extensively on catalyst development for fuel cells from 2004 to 2006.