Degree in Physics, Beijing University; PhD in Biological Sciences, Columbia University, working on cellular mechanisms of neurotransmitter secretion and synaptic plasticity; postdoctoral research on information coding in the visual system, Rockefeller University and Harvard Medical School. Since 1997, with University of California, Berkeley; currently, Professor of Neurobiology and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Using a combination of electrophysiology, imaging and computational methods, has provided important insights into the microcircuits underlying visual cortical computation and cellular mechanisms for functional plasticity, including revealing the functional consequences of spike-timing-dependent plasticity at multiple levels, from synapse to circuits to perception. Recent work has revealed the mechanisms by which neuromodulatory circuits exert powerful control of brain states and sensory processing. Recipient: Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship; Beckman Young Investigator Award; Society for Neuroscience Research Awards for Innovation in Neuroscience.