He had been a biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for 22 years, where he participated in the Human Genome Project, led a team to complete many hundreds of bacterial genomes, and authored more than 300 research papers. Before that, he got his Ph.D. from Fudan University. He was trained as a medical doctor in college and worked in a hospital for many years.
“With purpose, simple things become enjoyable, and difficult things become opportunities to learn and overcome.”