I was born and raised in Mianyang, Sichuan, China. I spent six great years in Tsinghua University and graduated with B.S. and M.S., both in Electronic Engineering. My advisor, Prof. Runsheng Liu, was a great mentor. I was a violinist and later violist for the Tsinghua University Symphony Orchestra (TUSO).  I also hung out with an amateur band from Peking University. It was a lot of fun. I still play the violin and viola regularly.

I came to the states for my doctoral study at Princeton and spent five years there. Again, my PhD advisor, Prof. Niraj Jha, was a great mentor. Princeton is a fun place except it snows a lot in the winter. So I decided to join Rice after getting my PhD in 2005.

My wife got her Ph.D. in mass communication from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and now works for a non-profit as a market researcher. She is from Chengdu, Sichuan.

Our son, Kaifeng, was born December 2010; we are enjoying every minute parenting him.

You can find me on Facebook.