He is a co-director of the Lab of Forest Advanced Computing and Artificial Intelligence (FACAI) and GFBI Hub-Purdue. His research interest is connecting machine learning and big data in studying fundamental questions in biodiversity and ecosystem processes, ecological and socioeconomic impacts of biological conservation, and forest resource modeling and assessment. During his career, he has taught a wide spectrum of forestry and quantitative courses including dendrology, forest ecology, big data analysis in forest science, and forest management. He is also actively engaged in the international research community by serving as Coordinator and Co-Founder of the Global Forest Biodiversity Initative (GFBI).