I am a tenured Full Professor in the School of Information (iSchool) and Director of the Institute for Successful Longevity at Florida State University. My research lies at the intersection of biomedical and health informatics and information science, with core expertise in machine learning, natural language processing, knowledge representation, and human-centered AI. I am also Co-Director of the Biostatistics, Informatics, and Research Design Program (BIRD) for the UF-FSU Clinical and Translational Science Award. I currently serve as Chair of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Working Group. I am an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). I'm honored to receive the 2022 Lois Lunin Award from the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) and the 2026 Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award from Florida State University.
At FSU, I direct the eHealth Lab. My research program focuses on designing and evaluating artificial intelligence–driven health technologies that support patients, caregivers, and clinicians, particularly older adults and underserved populations. I have extensive experience leading multidisciplinary teams with researchers in informatics, psychology, medicine, public health, computer science, sociology, gerontology, and industry partners. As a Principal Investigator, I have been continuously funded by federal agencies since 2019, featuring an R01 grant and an R21 grant funded by the National Institute on Aging, an R21 grant funded by the National Library of Medicine, an R21/R33 grant funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and another R21/R33 grant funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). As a Co-Investigator, I have received funding from NHLBI, NIAAA, NIGMS, NIDA, VHA, etc. I have received over $30 million in grant awards. In addition, I have also received grant awards from Humana Foundation, UF-FSU Clinical and Translational Science Award Hub, Eli Lilly and Company, Amazon, NVIDIA, FSU, and the Institute for Successful Longevity. In the NIA-funded R01 project “Adherence Promotion with Person-Centered Technology (APPT)”, we developed machine learning methods to predict adherence to cognitive training and lapses among older adults. We have also conducted randomized controlled trials of a just-in-time smart reminder system to promote adherence to tablet-based gamified cognitive training, and a reminder system for a mobile-based cognitive assessment program. In the AHRQ-funded R21/R33 project, we are developing LabGenie, a genAI–powered patient-facing application that helps older adults understand laboratory results and prepare for clinical visits. In my NIA-funded R21 project, I led the development of ctGATE, an informatics toolkit for assessing clinical trial generalizability, and a suite of informatics methods to optimize clinical trial eligibility criteria. In the Humana Foundation grant, we are developing an AI concierge to promote community engagement and reduce social isolation among older adults. Across these projects, I have developed and evaluated customized AI algorithms and informatics tools that are deployable in real-world healthcare or community settings.
I received a B.S. in Computer Science from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) in 2007, an M.S. from Columbia University in 2009, and a Ph.D. from New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2014. During my PhD, I worked with Dr. James Geller and Dr. Yehoshua Perl in the Structural Analysis of Biomedical Ontologies Center (SABOC). My doctoral work was focused on developing quality assurance methods for biomedical ontologies, including the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), SNOMED CT, and application ontologies in BioPortal. Before joining FSU, I was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University, under Dr. Chunhua Weng as my PI. I received an early promotion to Associate Professor with tenure at FSU in 2020. During my sabbatical in 2023-2024, I visited the National Library of Medicine as a Guest Researcher, where I studied large language models for health applications. I was promoted to Full Professor in 2025.
I have published over 150 papers in leading biomedical informatics venues, including JAMIA, JBI, Nature Communications, npj Digital Medicine, JMIR, and AMIA. My papers received prestigious recognitions including (1) two Distinguished Paper Awards of AMIA 2015 and AMIA 2017 Annual Symposium (AMIA 2015 paper and AMIA 2017 paper), (2) 2nd Place Best Student Paper Award of AMIA 2019 Annual Symposium, (2) paper selection in "AMIA 2014 Informatics Year In Review" (AMIA 2013 paper), (3) finalists of the Student Paper Award of AMIA 2015 Summit on Clinical Research Informatics and MEDINFO 2015, and (4) paper selection in "Clinical Research Informatics 2016 Year in Review" (JBI 2016 and AMIA 2015 paper)
I have been actively serving the biomedical informatics research community as an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA), Journal of Biomedical Informatics (JBI), PLOS ONE, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, BMC Digital Health, Social Science Computer Review, and an Associate Editor of Smart Health (Elsevier) and Journal of Healthcare Informatics Research (JHIR). I regularly review for over 50 mainstream journals, including Nature Medicine, NEJM AI, Lancet Digital Health, npj Digital Medicine, JAMIA, JBI, and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, among many others. I also serve on grant review panels for the NIH, VHA, AHRQ, NSF, and other funding agencies and private foundations in the US and other countries (Italy, Switzerland, Canada, ...). I'm currently a standing member of the NIH Clinical Informatics and Digital Health (CIDH) Study Section.
