About me

As a child, I intended a career in music but also captivated by the mysteries of natural sciences.  I received my  degree in chemistry from Tsinghua Uinivesity in Beijing, China. I conducted my bachelor thesis research on thermodynamics of lipid bilayers with Professor Zhiwu Yu. 

I started graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania studying quantum chemistry but soon was seduced by neuroscience. I  did my graduate work in human color perception and constancy of 3D objects with Professor David Brainard in the Neuroscience Graduate Group.  In graduate school, I did six lab rotations ranging from measuring electrophysiological signals in central patten generators in crabs to simulating small networks of olfactory mitral cells.  I ventured out into courses such as Quantum Field Theory, Artificial Intelligence, 16th Century Counterpoint, and Stochastic Processes.

After my PhD, to further probe the brain,  I worked with Professor Alex Wade at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco, where I investigated early visual processing of color and luminance signals using frequency-tagging and source-imaged EEG methods.  Fascinated by the challenging problem of material perception,  I did a postdoc in the perceptual science group under the supervision of Professor Ted Adelson in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT. In 2014, I joined the Department of Computer Science at American University, where I currently lead the Computational Material Perception Laboratory and teach a variety of courses in CS. 

I am passionate about working with students who have a solid background in cognitive science, computer science, engieering, applied math, physics, and other natural sciences. At American University, we have an excellent CS master's program and a PhD program in cognition and neuroscience. Undergraduate students interested in the lab as research assistants are also encouraged to contact me.