His own research focuses on molecular genetics of body patterning, neural development, synthetic and evolutionary biology, and he runs a laboratory with diverse model organisms. He experimented extensive on various teaching pedagogy including exploratory project course, MOOC and extensive flipped classes, and was awarded the Science School Teaching Award and the Michael G. Gale Medal of distinguished teaching at HKUST. He also heads the Center for Development of the Gifted and Talented nurturing gifted students. Over the years, he has set up a number of successful undergraduate and graduate programs, e.g., Mol. Biomed. Sci., Bioengineering, Individualized Indterdisciplinary Major, etc. He served as Academic Director of the Common Core Program, the Director of Interdisciplinary Programs Office overseeing the development of Environment, Sustainability, Public Policy, Technology Management, Risk Management and Business Intelligence, as well as currently as the Dean of Students.