He received his Ph.D. from the University of Twente, Netherlands in 1991, became a professor in 1992, and a doctoral supervisor in 1996. He was appointed a Level-2 Professor at Nankai University in 2008, a Distinguished Professor at Nankai University in 2017, and will retire on December 31, 2024. In September 2025, he was appointed a Silver Age Professor at Xinjiang Normal University.
His research and teaching focus on graph theory, combinatorial optimization, chemical graph theory, and computer science theory.
He has led and participated in 3 key projects and 12 general projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as 2 projects under the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program). He has also led and completed numerous provincial and ministerial-level projects funded by the Ministry of Education and other institutions. He has received the Science and Technology Progress Award from the State Education Commission, the Natural Science Award of Shandong Province, the First Prize of Science and Technology Progress Award from the Shaanxi Provincial Education Commission, and the First Prize of Outstanding Natural Science Papers Award from Shaanxi Province.
Invited to conduct collaborative research and academic exchanges at universities and research institutes in the United States, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Australia, Hong Kong, Mexico, and other countries and regions more than 30 times (each time lasting one year, six months, or three months).
Supervised 12 postdoctoral fellows (11 of whom have completed their postdoctoral studies), 82 doctoral students (80 of whom have obtained their doctoral degrees), and 38 master's students (37 of whom have obtained their master's degrees).