I started in the life sciences, but became fascinated with data visualization during my PhD. I worked through several tools-starting in MATLAB, moving to Python (matplotlib/seaborn), and finally landing in R with ggplot2. After defending my PhD, I packaged the custom plotting functions I had built into smplot, my first R package. Looking back, it was essentially a set of Python-to-ggplot2 translations of my go-to plotting routines.
What began as a hobby soon grew into a deliberate focus on developing open visualization tools. In 2024, I released smplot2 on CRAN, which expanded beyond plotting wrappers by introducing a solution that handles list of ggplot2 objects into a composite figure.
Lately, I’ve been focused on ggsem, an R package for interactive, parameter-aware visualization of structural equation and network models. It’s designed to support reproducible, multi-group and cross-paradigm comparisons in a visual workflow.
Outside of software development, I conduct empirical research on human spatial vision, with a particular emphasis on binocular visual processing in typical and clinical populations.
In both endeavors, my goal is the same: to provide new tools and perspectives that help us see our world, and our data, more clearly.
Associate Professor, Dept. Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (2025.04 - Present)
Assistant Professor, Dept. Ophthalmology and Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University (2021.12 - 2025.01)
Research Fund for International Young Scientists (Role: PI), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Jan 2024 - Dec 2025)
National Foreign Expert Project (Role: PI), The Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (Jan 2022 - Dec 2023).
PhD, Computational Neuroscience, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Quebec, McGill University (2017 - 2021).
Bachelors of Science, Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, Quebec, Canada (2013-2017). Top 10% cGPA in the faculty.
R, Matlab, Python
I play the clarinet as a hobby. Here is a clip of me playing Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov with my friend Junyi, a professional pianist.