James was born and grew up in Changchun, a small city in China. He obtained his B.S in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, and is now pursing his Ph.D in the physics department at Columbia University. For his research, he studies various functional magnetic materials, such as novel Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors and Skyrmion systems, using Muon Spin Relaxation and Neutron Scattering as probing techniques. He also works on developing novel texture analysis formalisms for nanomaterials based on Synchrotron X-ray scattering data. In the Complex Modeling project, he focuses on quantification of solution degeneracy in the X-ray structure inverse problem. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to symphony and exploring the enigmatic nyc.