I was born and raised in a remote countryside in SE China. The beautiful sunrise and sunset from mountain horizons have been deeply recorded in my memory since childhood. The rural life was simple and hard to say happy. One couldn't imagine how poor was local school during that time.  So I dreamed someday of seeing wonderful world outside tiny home village.  Luckily I got lovely supports from my family. Of course, without great helps from kind friends, nice teachers and inspiring mentors, that's hard to imagine I can be a scientist now (though I am far from a great one).  The turning point I have to highlight is study in Japan for my PhD. More than 4 years' study and life in Osaka shaped me a lot, but still kept me simple-minded. 

    My parents are never able to understand what kind of scientific work I have been doing (also to me it's so difficult to let them know tricky palynology clearly!), but they are always proud of me that I am an only PhD in my family so far, and most exciting thing to them was that I didn't have to be a peasant like them and their parents, grandparents ... ! [they meant that to earn life as a peasant at that time was so tough!?]

   After some tough years' study,  I received degrees from Lanzhou University in Gansu, China (BA in geology), Tongji University in Shanghai, China (MA in palynology) and Osaka City University in Japan (PhD in biogeoscience). I am currently based at Nanjing (NIGPAS), as a Cenozoic (most Quaternary) palynologist in Department of Palaeobotany and Palynology (where the father of Palaeobotany in China, Sze Hsing-Chien, had worked for life long).

      My research interests mainly focus on pollen morphology for fossil taxa and extant plants in China, Quaternary palynology, and mangrove vegetation history and its past biogeography. I am one of the key contributors of the book Atlas of Quaternary Pollen and Spores in China (both Chinese and English edition).