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Prospective PhD Students:

My life would be happier if I found very good PhD students to work with. If this is you, do apply!
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Contact:
(PGP Key)



I'm a lecturer (equivalent to U.S. assistant professor) at Cybersecurity Lab, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash Unviersity , Australia, and an honorary research fellow working with Prof. Mark Ryan ( HP Chair in Cybersecurity ) in the Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy , University of Birmingham, UK, where I received my PhD in computer science. I did my postdoc with Prof. Paulo Esteves-Verissimo (IEEE and ACM Fellow) at SnT , University of Luxembourg .

My research interests are in the area of cyber security and cryptography. In particular, the focus of my research has been on (designing and attacking) Blockchain consensus, Blockchain security and privacy, cryptographic key management, and ledger-based applications.

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  • [2018-12-09] Our paper "ANCHOR: logically-centralized security for Software-Defined Networks" has been accepted for publication by ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (ACM TOPS, previously known as ACM TISSEC.)
  • [2018-11-30] I'm delighted to be invited to attend the 75th Meeting of the IFIP WG 10.4 Working Group on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance.
  • [2018-11-15] A paper on "New Empirical Traceability Analysis of CryptoNote-Style Blockchains" has been accepted by Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2019 (FC19, 33/178=18.5%).
  • [2018-07-01] As co-chair, I'm delighted to see the 74th Meeting of the IFIP WG 10.4 on Blockchian has been very successful. All the material will be available at here.
  • [2018-05-22] CHARITY. Prof. Mark Ryan's Supporting for Aframano, a village in Ghana, Africa. See more detail at markryan.eu/aframano
    • [2017-10-11] Interviewed by Eldo Radio to explain end-to-end encryption in messaging and DECIM.
  • [2017-10-05] DECIM has been covered by dozens of international news media, such as Science Daily . The news was originally published by the Universituy of Luxembourg (link) and the University of Birmingham (link).
  • [2017-06-29] A paper on "DECIM: Detecting Endpoint Compromise In Messaging" has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2017.
  • [2017-05-15] A paper on "Authenticating compromisable storage systems" has been accepted by the 16th IEEE TrustCom, 2017.
  • [2017-04-30] I have been awarded for the ``Chinese Government Award for outstanding PhD scholar abroad''. The success rate is 3% in UK and 1% worldwide. Here is the news press.
  • [2017-04-21] A paper on "Automatically Detecting the Misuse of Secrets: Foundations, Design Principles, and Applications" has been accepted by the 30th IEEE CSF, 2017.


"If what you are doing is not important, and if you don't think it is going to lead to something important, why are you working on it?" --- Dr. Richard W. Hamming.

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I'm into all kinds of Martial arts, including Kung-Fu, Jeet Kune Do, Sanshou (free combat), Chin Na (grappling), Chinese wrestling, Muay Thai, MMA.

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I am available for consultant. You are also welcome to discuss any idea on possible cooperations.

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RESEARCH

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Main research impact:
My work on ledger-based end-to-end secure messaging system has attracted news media's attention and has been covered by more than 30 international and national news media including Science Daily, Phys.org, ACM TechNews, EurekAlert, Futurism, and Silicon Republic. The news has been released in more than 7 languages by media from more than 10 countries including UK, US, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Turkey, Spain, and India. I have also been invited for an interview (to explain my innovation to general listeners) by Eldoradio --- a member of RTL group which is one of the world's leading producers of television content and the leading European entertainment network.

My patent-pending ledger-based applications have been further developed by a University of Birmingham spin-off, and have attracted funding support from Innovate UK.

I've co-designed a secure booting solution for Huawei Ltd, the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, to manage their next generation network devices securely.

Publications and Manuscripts:
    (My Google scholar and DBLP page.)


Grant, Awards, and scholarships:
  • Grant:
    • "Technology inspired feasibility study for secure email and cloud storage", GBP33,000 from Technology Strategy Board (Innovate UK), 2015.

  • Awards:
    1. Chinese Government Award For Outstanding PhD Scholar Abroad, 2016. (3% in UK, 1% worldwide.)
    2. Finalist for RAEng Enterprise Fellowship , Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), UK. 2015.
    3. First place award, the Coniston poster competition, University of Birmingham, UK, 2014.
    4. Outstanding Graduates of Heilongjiang Province, Heilongjiang, China, 2009.
    5. Outstanding Graduates of Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, 2009.
    6. Best Undergraduate Thesis Award, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, 2009.
    7. Outstanding Academic Award, The Northeast Agricultural University, China, 2008.
    8. First National Prize of China Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, China, 2007.
    9. Second National Prize of China Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, China, 2006.
    10. Outstanding Student Award of The Northeast Agricultural University, China, 2006.
    11. Outstanding Student Leadership Award, The Northeast Agricultural University, China, 2006.

  • Scholarships:
    1. Universitas 21 scholarship from the University of Birmingham, 2015.
    2. EPSRC project funding for PhD studies at University of Birmingham, 2012 - 2015.
    3. Overseas top up scholarship from the University of Birmingham for PhD studies, 2012 - 2015.
    4. First class scholarship, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, 2008.
    5. First class scholarship, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, 2007.
    6. First class scholarship, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, 2006.

Selected projects:
  • Co-Designer. Huawei SoC Secure Boot Solution, UK. September - December, 2016. (Funded by Huawei Ltd.)
  • Co-leader, Innovate UK project on user-friendly security and privacy to increase confidence in cloud-based systems, UK. June - September, 2015. (Funded by Innovate UK.)

Professional Activities:


MARTIAL ARTS

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I'm a big fan of martial arts since I was a kid, and I was really into Wuxia novels and Kung Fu movies (mainly acted by Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jacky Chen, Jing Wu, and Donnie Yen). I finally started to learn Kung Fu in 1999 with my first Sifu. Later, I started to learn Jeet Kune Do around 2002, Tai chi in 2003, Sanshou in 2005, Tian Gang Mian Zhang in 2006, The Five Elements of Xing Yi Quan in 2007, Muay Thai in 2007, Fanzi quan, Chin Na (joint lock techniques) and Mongolian wrestling in 2009. I became a Kung Fu coach and an assistant Sanshou coach in 2008, and I got a part time job for teaching stand up technique in a Mixed martial arts (MMA) school in Australia in 2010, and founded Endless Martial Arts Association in 2011. I've been invited several times to give performance in different places (e.g. Viva La Gong at Wollongong, AU; Town Hall at Birmingham, UK; etc).


BUSINESS

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I'm a director of CloudTomo, a university spin-out company providing public ledger-based applications and security solutions for email and cloud storage. Please contact me for more detail.


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Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.