Research interests

1. Prehistory of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Micronesia,

2. Ancient human migrations,

3. Maritime connections and trades,

4. Ancient ornaments and artistic expressions,

5. Taiwan: archaeology, history, and culture.

Awards

1. Supervisor of the Month Award, Australian National University (awarded in Sepetmber 2022)

2. The 2014 Governor's Humanities Award for Research and Publication in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (awarded in 2014);

3. The 12th Excellent Research Award of Philosophy and Science of Beijing City, China (awarded in 2012).

Keynote speech

I was invited to be the keynote speaker for the 2022 "Forum on the Revitalization of the Austronesian Languages". In real-time during the event, my speech was translated into seven languages for the international and domestic participants.

Evidence of impact

1. Publications

So far, I have published more than 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in 5 languages (in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese). Several of my works originally in English were selected by colleagues internationally for language barrier-breaking translations into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

2. Google Scholar citations

3200+ citations in Google Scholar, not yet including many more citations in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Bahasa, and other language publications.

3. Invited presentations, funded by the organizers

So far, I have been invited to 40+ different events of international conferences as a guest speaker or discussant, for examples, Taiwan (2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024....), Indonesia (2016), Malaysia (2018, 2019), Vietnam (2009, 2020), South Korea (2014, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024), China (2011, 2015, 2017, 2024), Hongkong (2008, 2009), Saipan, the Marianas (2011, 2013, 2016), USA (2012), Denmark (2016), and Germany (2017, 2019).