- Taught undergraduate physics major and graduate level 342/555 (Introduction to Solid State Physics, Kittel) class at the Physics Department, the University of Tennessee Knoxville.
- Taught Physics 221/222 at physics undergraduate student level (Premedical students, College Physics) at the Physics Department, the University of Tennessee Knoxville from 2001-2003
- Taught undergraduate physics lab at University of Missouri.
- Taught undergraduate physics courses at Zhenghzhou University.
Research
- Polarized, unpolarized, and time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering studies of magnetic dynamics in ideally doped and underdoped superconducting high-transition temperature superconductors;
- Elastic and inelastic neutron scattering studies of strongly correlated electron materials including colossal magneto-resistance (CMR) manganites and non-Fermi-liquid heavy fermions;
- Quasielastic neutron scattering studies of Monolayer of Flexible Rod-shaped Molecules adsorbed on graphite;
- Synchrotron x-ray diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) study of liquid crystal adsorbed on single crystal graphite and Synchrotron x-ray Diffraction studies of the structure and the growth of Xe and n-Alkane adsorbed on Ag(111) using a specially designed UHV system;
- Design and Construction of a novel low temperature Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) chamber for synchrotron x-ray diffraction and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) from films physisorbed on single-crystal surfaces.
Employment:
- August 1, 2013, Professor of Physics, Rice University
- August 1, 2006, Professor of Physics, The University of Tennessee
- August 1, 2006, Joint Faculty, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- August, 2003, Awarded tenure at the University of Tennessee
- April 1st, 2001, Associate Professor of Physics, The University of Tennessee
- Joint Faculty, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- May 1999- March 2001, Staff member II, Solid State Division, ORNL.
- Dec., 1996-May 1999, Staff member I, Solid State Division, ORNL.
- Oct., 1993-Dec, 1996, Postdoctoral Fellow, ORNL.
- Sep., 1993-Oct., 1993 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Missouri.
- Jun., 1988-Aug., 1993 Graduate Research Assistant, University of Missouri.
- Aug., 1987-Jun., 1988 Teaching Assistant, University of Missouri.
- Aug., 1986-Aug., 1988 Fellowship, University of Missouri.
- Aug., 1984-Aug., 1986 Instructor, Zhengzhou University.
Honors:
- July 2003, cowinner, outstanding young researchers by the Overseas Chinese Physics Association (OCPA).
- October 2001 winner, Professional Development Award at the University of Tennessee.
- March, 1999 winner, Research Accomplishment Award in the 1999 Awards Night Program at ORNL.
- Oct., 1998 winner, US Department of Energy’s Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award in the Condensed Matter Physics category.
- 1992-1993 1st place winner, Annual Research and Creative Activities Forum, University of Missouri.
- Superior Graduate Achievement Award, Graduate School, University of Missouri.
- Ernest. W. Landen Fellow, Department of Physics, University of Missouri.
Internal and external funded grants:
- September 2005, Subcontract from UT/Bettelle, entitle “Using neutron scattering to study spin excitations in electron-doped materials”. Funded at $37,530 for one year;
- May, 2005, DOE DE-FG02-05ER46202, entitled “Study magnetic excitations in doped transition metal oxides using inelastic neutron scattering”. Funded at $132,053/year for three years.
- May, 2005, NSF DMR-0453804, entitled “Magnetic correlations through Metal-Insulator Transition in strongly correlated electron materials”. Funded at $110 K/year for three years.
- December, 2003, NSF supplementary to DMR-0139882, entitled “Using neutron as a probe to study strongly correlated electron materials”. Funded at $18900 for one year.
- July, 2002 DOE nanoscience competition with Shoucheng Zhang of Stanford University and David Mandrus of Oak Ridge National Laboratory as co-PIs entitled “Nano-Scaled Magnetism in Vortex State of High-Tc Cuprates”. Funded at $162,639/year for 3 years.
- May, 2002 SARIF competition at UTK entitled “Acquisition of a IR floating zone furnace at the TAML facility”. Funded $45 K in 2002.
- July, 2001 SARIF competition at UTK entitled “Acquisition of a PPMS for characterizing novel electronic and magnetic materials at the TAML facility”. Funded $72 K in 2001.
- October, 2002 under DOE-AC05-00OR22725 subcontract entitled “Search for exotic spin and lattice effects in strongly correlated electron materials”. Funded at $100 K/year for three years.
- May, 2002 NSF DMR-0139882 entitled “Using neutron as a probe to study strongly correlated electron materials”. Funded at $100 K/year level for three years.
Internal and external services:
- Refereeing for journals Nature, Science, Physical Review Letters, and Physical Review B;
- Reviewing research grant proposals for the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy;
- Active member, neutron scattering user group in charge of designing the chopper spectrometer at the spallation neutron source;
- International adviser, laboratory of high-transition temperature superconductors, institute of physics, Chinese academy of sciences, Beijing, China;
- Principle organizer of workshop “Physics in strongly correlated electron systems” held in Knoxville, Tennessee, April 16-17th, 2004.
- Advisory committee member, Center for superconductivity at the institute of physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
- Oversea Chinese Physics Association’s (OCPA) divisional coordinator. See: http://www.npl.uiuc.edu/jcpeng/ocpa/exec05-06.html
- Organizer for condensed matter physics program, OCPA “The 5th joint meeting of Chinese physicists worldwide” to be held in June, Taiwan, 2006. See: http://www.phys.sinica.edu.tw/~ocpa06/
Invited talks:
- Invited speaker to the opening ceremony of the International Team on Superconductivity and Novel Electron Materials (ITSCNEM), June 23, 2006. Institute of Physics, Beijing. “20 years of neutron scattering studies of high-Tc copper oxides: Search for universal features in different classes of materials.”
- Invited speaker 4th Beijing Forum for superconductivity, June 19-22, 2006. First city, Beijing. “Resonance in electron-doped high-Tc superconductor PrLaCeCuO”.
- Invited condensed matter seminar in Physics Department, Johns Hopkins University, April 19th, 2006.
- Invited condensed matter seminar in Physics Department, Purdue University, March 24th, 2006.
- Invited seminar at Central Research Institute of Power Industry, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 27th, 2005.
- Invited speaker at the international conference on superconductivity and materials, Tsukuba, Japan, Oct. 24-26, 2005.
- Invited speaker at second conference on user program for Chinese spallation neutron source, July 27th, 2005;
- Invited speaker at Kavli institute for theoretical physics, UCSB, July 20th, 2005;
- Invited speaker at conference on crystal growth, Big Sky, Montana, July 11th, 2005;
- Invited speaker at the Beijing forum on high-Tc superconductivity, June 6th, Beijing, China, 2005;
- Invited speaker at the 4th Asia-Pacific Physics workshop-frontier in condensed matter physics”, Beijing, China, May 27, 2005;
- Invited speaker at workshop on instrumentation with high magnetic fields, Tallahassee, May, 2005;
- Invited speaker at Study of Matter at Extreme Conditions, April 17, 2005;
- Condensed matter seminar, Princeton University, Oct. 11, 2004;
- Invited speaker at 3rd Workshop on Orbital Physics and Novel Phenomena in Transition Metal Oxides, Oct. 6-7, Berlin, Germany (2004);
- Invited speaker at the Beijing forum on high-Tc superconductivity, JinGang Mountain, China, July 3rd-8th, 2004;
- Invited speaker at “Joint meeting of Chinese physicists world-wide: international conference on physics education and frontier research”, June 28-July 1, 2004;
- Invited speaker at “The 2nd Asia-Pacific physics workshop-frontier in condensed matter physics”, Hong Kong, June 21-24, 2004;
- Invited speaker at the international workshop on “Self organized strongly correlated electron systems”, Santorini, Greece, August 2003;
- Invited speaker at APS march meeting, Montreal, March 2004;
- Invited speaker at the international workshop on Theory, Modeling, and Neutron Scattering, August 2003;
- Invited speaker at American Crystallographic society Annual meeting in Cincinnatic, OH, July 2003;
- Invited speaker at APS March meeting, March 2003;
- Invited talks at the international workshop on high-Tc superconductivity, Beijing, China, December 2002;
- Invited speaker at CMR manganites and related transition metal oxides, Telluride, Colorado, USA July 14-20, 2002;
- Invited speaker at the first American Conference for Neutron Scattering, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA June 24-28, 2002;
- Invited speaker at Beijing Forum for high-Tc superconductivity, Beijing, China June 10-14, 2002;
- Invited speaker at ORAU forum for neutron scattering, March 2002;
- Invited speaker at PPHMF-IV Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA October 19-25, 2001;
- Invited speaker at the 2nd International Workshop on Novel Quantum Phenomena in Transition Metal Oxides, Senda, Japan, August, 2001;
- Invited speaker at International workshop on high-Tc superconductivity in Lijiang, China, June, 2001;
- Condensed matter seminar at University of California-Los Angles, March, 2001;
- Invited symposium speaker at APS March meeting, Seattle, March, 2001;
- Colloquium and seminar at University of Notre Dame;
- Condensed matter physics seminar at Stanford University, Feb. 08, 2001;
- Colloquium and seminar at Boston College, December, 2000;
- Colloquium and condensed matter seminar at University of Missouri-Columbia, December, 2000;
- Colloquium and condensed matter seminar at University of California at San Diego, October, 2000;
- Invited seminar at Los Alamos National Laboratory, September, 2000; Colloquium at University of Tennessee, October, 2000;
- Workshop on “Modern trends of condensed matter physics”, Beijing, China, July, 2000;
- IIAS-JRCAT Joint workshop on "Phase Control in Correlated Electron Systems", Tsukuba, Japan, May, 2000;
- “Stripe Physics” workshop, Honolulu (January, 2000), University of Bristol, Bristol, England (February, 2000);
- Invited seminar at University of Tennessee (Nov. 1999);
- Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (July, 1999);
- Frontier-Science Research Conference on colossal magneto-resistance oxides (June, 1999);
- National high magnetic field laboratory and Florida State University (1999);
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (1999);
- Rutgers University (1999);
- March meeting of American Physical Society (1998);
- International conference on neutron scattering, Toronto, Canada (1997);
- Fall meeting of materials society, Boston, MA (1996);
- Satellite Meeting to the XVIIth International Congress of Crystallography (1996);
- University of California at San Diego;
- Argonne National Laboratory;
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory;
- Invited talks at University of Missouri.