I was born in Beijing, China and came to the States in 2007 for my Ph.D study with Dr. Yi Zuo at University of California Santa Cruz. I always wanted to understand how the brain works and I started my career with a neurocentric view but by the end of my Ph.D. program, I became fascinated by another non-neuronal cell type, astrocytes. In 2014, I joined Dr. Baljit Khakh's lab at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) as a postdoc, where I investigated astrocyte functions under health and disease at great depth. During this period, my interests in astrocytes were further shaped and refined. After completing my postdoctoral training, I established my own lab at UIUC in 2020 to continue exploring astrocytes in neural circuits and behavior.