I was born in Shanghai, China and spent my childhood there. After completing a B.S. degree major in Physics and minor in Biology in Tsinghua University, Beijing, I studied the genetic mechanisms of human carcinogenesis at Rutgers University, New Jersey, under Professor Chung S. Yang and obtained my first Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Not totally satisfied with the level and nature of understanding of biological phenomina I could reach via pure experimental approaches, I turned to statistical machine learning and computational biology, and completed a second Ph.D. in Computer Science at U.C. Berkeley, under Professors Michael Jordan, Richard Karp, and Stuart Russell. Now I study biological problems using statistical learning approaches, and also work on theory and application of graphical models, nonparametric Bayesian analysis and semi-unsupervised learning.

In my spare time I enjoy classical music and reading. My wife Wei Wu is also a computational biologist. She is now an assistant professor in the School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh.