My undergraduate major was physics in China. When I applied for graduate schools in 2000, I was greatly attracted by the emerging field of computational biology. I was lucky to be admitted into the computational biology program at Dornsife College, which has been one the best program in the US. My Ph.D. mentor was Prof. Michael Waterman, from whom I learned the foremost in both knowledge and in vision that eventually paved the path to my current career and achievements. I also received tremendous help from many other great people at USC, not only in academia but also in daily life. During my 4 years of doctorate study at Dornsife College, I was trained well with knowledge in multiple disciplines (mathematics, statistics, computer science, molecular biology). I also learned computing skills and critical thinking skills, which turned out to be utterly pivotal to my current research. My time at USC was short but extremely enjoyable. After graduation, I worked for 2-years as a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard University under the guidance of Prof. Jun Liu. I joined the faculty of Statistics Department at Penn State in 2006. Now I look back to my past 10 years in the US, studying at USC was a unique experience and was one of the best choices I have made.