Born in 1957 in Hunan Province, he received his PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989. From 1989 to 1995, he worked at the University of Rhode Island and NASA. Beginning in 1995, he served at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as Associate Research Scientist, Doherty Senior Research Scientist, and subsequently Lamont Research Professor. In 2006, he was appointed Director of the State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environmental Dynamics at the Second Institute of Oceanography. He was elected Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015.
He has long been engaged in fundamental research in physical oceanography and has made significant contributions to coastal oceanography, open-ocean processes, and climate studies. He has published over 150 academic papers and technical reports, including first-author and corresponding-author articles in Nature, Science, and several Nature series journals. His research has had substantial academic impact and practical value.
In recent years, he has twice served as Chief Scientist of the National 973 Program, has led multiple key projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and has acted as the academic leader of an NSFC Innovative Research Group. He has also held positions in several major international scientific organizations and editorial boards, served as a member of the Earth Sciences Division Panel and International Cooperation Advisory Committee of NSFC, and has led or contributed to multiple national-level strategic research reports. His work has made significant contributions to the development and disciplinary advancement of physical oceanography in China.