She obtained her PhD degree in Materials Science in 2004 at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship and worked at Trinity College Dublin between 2009 and 2011. She specialises in polymer synthesis and characterisation of multiphase/multicomponent nanocomposites, exploitation of multifunctionality for energy harvesting and storage applications. She has expertise in developing reactive processing of thermoplastic-, thermoset- and elastomer-based blends/alloys and nanocomposites through in situ polymerisation and reactive extrusion.