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.
International awards
1. The 2014 Governor's Humanities Award for Research and Publication in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (awarded in 2014, with A/Prof. Mike Carson);
2. The 12th Excellent Research Award of Philosophy and Science of Beijing City, China (awarded in 2012, with Prof. ZHANG Chi of Peking University, for the publication of " The Emergence of Agriculture in Southern China" in the leading international journal "Antiquity");
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 100 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.
2300+ citations in Google Scholar (1400+ since 2017), 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 30+ different events of international conferences as a guest speaker or discussant, for examples, Taiwan (2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2022....), Indonesia (2016), Malaysia (2018, 2019), Vietnam (2009, 2020), South Korea (2014, 2020, 2021), China (2011, 2015, 2017), Hongkong (2008, 2009), Saipan, the Marianas (2011, 2013, 2016), USA (2012), Denmark (2016), and Germany (2017, 2019).