Education:

• B.S. in Mathematics, Nanjing Institute of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China, 1982.
• M.S. in Mathematics, Peking University, Beijing, China, 1984. Thesis advisor: Prof. Boju Jiang.
• Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of California, San Diego, 1988. Thesis advisor: Prof. Michael H. Freedman.

Academic Positions:

• 1988-1992, Ritt Assistant Professor, Columbia University, New York.
• 1992-1995, Associate Professor, Columbia University, New York.
• 1995-1998, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside.
• 1998-present, Professor, Univeristy of California, Riverside.

Visiting Positions:

• 1988 Spring, Visiting Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
• 1993-1994, Visiting Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
• 1995 June-July, Visiting Member, Institut des Haustes Etudes Scientifiques, Bures-sur-Yvette.
• 1996 Fall, Visiting Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
• 1998-2000, Professor of Special Mathematics Lectures, Peking University, Beijing.

Fellowships and Grants:

• 1987-1988, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.
• 1990-1992, National Science Foundation Grant (P.I.), Grant No. DMS-9004017.
• 1992-1994, National Science Foundation Grant (P.I.), Grant No. DMS-9201091.
• 1992-1994, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship.
• 1994-1997, National Science Foundation Grant (P.I.), Grant No. DMS-9400806.
• 1997-2000, National Science Foundation Grant (P.I.), Grant No. DMS-9704072.
• 2000-2002, Overseas Youth Cooperation Reseach Fund, National Science Foundation of China.
• 2001-2004, National Science Foundation Grant (P.I.), Grant No. DMS-0102231.
• 2004-2007, National Science Foundation Grant (P.I.), Grant No. DMS-0404511.
• 2005-2008, National Science Foundation Grant (P.I.), Grant No. DMS-0456217 (FRG).

Editorship:

• Co-Editor-in-Chief (1998-present), Communications in Contemporary Mathematics, World Scientific.
• Editorial Board (1998-present), Acta Mathematica Sinica, Chinese Mathematical Society and Springer-Verlag.
• Editorial Board (1999-present), The Asian Journal of Mathematics, International Press.
• Editorial Board (2003-present), Kyungpook Mathematical Journal, Kyungpook National University, Taegu, Korea.
• Editorial Board (2003-present), Topology and Its Applications, Elsevier.

Other Professional Services:

• Organizer, Special session on new invariants of links and 3-manifolds, AMS 874th meeting, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1992.
• Co-organizer (with Joan Birman), Topology Day at Columbia, Columbia University, New York, 1994.
• Organizing Committee, Workshop on Combinatorial Problems Arising in Knots and 3-Manifolds, MSRI, Berkeley, 1997.
• Organizing Committee, Conference in Honor of Joan Birman's 70th Birthday , Columbia University, New York, 1998.
• Co-Chair, Research group in low dimensional topology supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, 1996-2000.
• Organizing Committee, Conference in Memory of Wei-Lian Chow and Kuo-Tsai Chen, Nankai University, Tianjian, China, Octoder 2000.
• Organizing Committee, Conference in Geometric Topology, Xi'an, China, August 2002.
• Program Committee, The First East Asia School of Knots and Related Topics, Seoul, South Korea, February 2004.
• Program Committee and Organizing Committee, The Second East Asia School of Knots and Related Topics, Dalian, China, August 2005.
• Scientific Committee, XXIII International Conference of Differential Geometric Methods in Theoretical Physics, Nankai Institute of Mathematics, Tianjin, China, August 2005.