Four Duke Kunshan University professors have received research funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, one of the country’s most prestigious academic programs.
The recipients are: Ming Li, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Xinrong Lin, associate professor of chemistry; Claudia Fernandes Nisa, assistant professor of behavioral science; and Jianbo Yue, professor of biology.
Li specializes in speech and language processing and multimodal behavioral signal analysis. He has published more than 200 papers with over 10,000 citations, and his work has won top prizes at international competitions.
Li earned a bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University, a master’s degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.
Lin researches advanced energy storage systems, including solid-state batteries and supercapacitors. Her lab designs new polymers and other electrochemically active materials aimed at boosting performance and safety. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals, and she has guided undergraduate teams to national awards in research competitions.
Lin received her doctorate in chemistry from Boston University with additional training at MIT. She previously worked as a research leader at BASF in battery materials, as an associate professor at Yunnan University, and as a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University.
Nisa’s research looks at how behavioral science can help people live healthier and more sustainable lives. She studies interventions that promote energy savings, reduce food waste and increase participation in public health programs such as cancer screening and blood donation. She uses lab experiments, large-scale field trials and meta-analyses of clinical studies to test what works and to inform policy.
Nisa earned degrees in psychology and economics at the University of Lisbon and a doctorate in social policy at the London School of Economics. She held postdoctoral positions at ETH-Zurich in Singapore and at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Yue’s research explores cell signaling in cancer, autophagy, immunity and viral infections. His lab has developed drug screening platforms and animal models to test potential therapies. He has also founded biotech startups focused on anti-metastatic and antiviral drugs.
Yue received degrees from Sichuan University, Peking University and Pennsylvania State University, and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University. Before joining DKU, he served as an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at City University of Hong Kong.
