He joined Microsoft Research in 1996 as a researcher in the US. In 1998, he moved to Beijing as one of the founding members of Microsoft Research China (later renamed Microsoft Research Asia). There he began a nine-year tenure as a researcher, subsequently moving on to become Research Manager, Assistant Managing Director, and Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia and a Distinguished Engineer of Microsoft Corporation. Prior to his engineering leadership role at Bing and online services, he oversaw the research activities at Microsoft Research Asia and the lab’s collaborations with universities in the Asia Pacific region, and was responsible for the Internet Services Research Center, an applied research organization dedicated to advanced technology investment in search and advertising at Microsoft.

He is an IEEE Fellow and ACM Fellow for his contributions to computer vision and computer graphics. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering of the US in 2017 and the Royal Academy of Engineering of the UK in 2018. He was conferred Honorary University Fellowship at HKU in 2017.