Q: How long have you been a GSA member?
A: I have been a GSA member since 2011, when I was a first-year PhD student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I was elected as a GSA Fellow in 2024.
Q: Do you have a GSA resource that has been your “go-to” for keeping you engaged with the Society?
A: GSA offers a wealth of resources that I find invaluable. As a member based outside of the U.S., my typical "go-to" resources are those that facilitate meaningful cross-cultural connections and provide a continuous pulse on the global aging landscape. Specifically, GSA Connect has been an indispensable daily resource for me. It serves as a vital hub where I stay updated on GSA’s different initiatives, including GSA’s regional conferences in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong. It was through this platform that I first applied for and joined the GSA delegation to the Chinese Congress on Gerontology and the Health Industry. As an early-career researcher at the time, this was a significant opportunity. It allowed me to gain a deep understanding of the evolving aging landscape in China while representing the Society on an international stage.
Beyond news and formal delegations, I find immense value in the GSA Interest Groups. These platforms allow me to transcend geographical boundaries and engage directly with scholars who share my specific research interests. Whether I am learning about the latest developments in another lab or sharing my own findings, these groups foster a sense of real-time community. For me, GSA’s resources are more than just information repositories—they are the digital and professional threads that keep me woven into the global scientific community, regardless of where I am physically based.
Q: In what ways has membership in GSA benefitted you?
A: GSA has truly been my "scholarly home," providing a steady foundation for my growth from a PhD student into an independent researcher. One of the most significant benefits has been the opportunity to engage deeply with the Society’s high-caliber publications. Beyond just reading and publishing in GSA journals to stay current on the latest science, I have been able to grow alongside them—starting as an ad hoc reviewer for the Journals of Gerontology, Series B (JGPS) in 2015 and eventually joining the Editorial Board in 2022. This trajectory has given me a front-row seat to the methodological advancements shaping our field and has allowed me to contribute to the rigor of the psychological sciences.
Beyond the metrics of publishing, GSA’s culture of mentorship and its unique focus on student development have been invaluable. One of the most empowering aspects of being a GSA student member was the chance to get involved early; for instance, serving as an abstract reviewer for the Annual Meetings was a fantastic way to learn the ropes of peer review and feel like a valued contributor to the society while still in training. This tradition of inclusiveness is what makes GSA unique. It’s also why I’ve stayed so deeply involved; the Society supported me with the Student Research Award-Dissertation Level from the Behavioral and Social Sciences Section in 2014 as well as a travel award for the 2017 pre-conference workshop. These early recognitions provided the momentum I needed to pursue a career in aging research.
Finally, GSA has opened doors for me to act as a bridge between the global and regional gerontology communities. I had the honor of serving as an elected GSA delegator, traveling to the Chinese Congress on Gerontology and the Health Industry in 2017 and 2019. Being part of those delegations, led by GSA Presidents (Prof. David Ekerdt and Prof. Kathryn Hyer), allowed me to offer my own expertise while facilitating vital cross-cultural exchange. In summary, GSA hasn't just provided me with resources; it has actively witnessed and nurtured every major milestone of my academic life.
Q: How did you get interested in the field of aging?
A: My journey into gerontology began with a simple yet profound curiosity during my undergraduate years: Why are some people happier than others, and how can we enhance human well-being? At the time, I was deeply interested in the study of emotion, particularly the mechanisms underlying positive affect. This fascination led me to my doctoral mentor, Professor Helene Fung at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, whose work focuses on the intersection of aging and emotion. Under Helene’s guidance, I was introduced to Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST), proposed by Professor Laura Carstensen. I was intrigued by the finding that as people perceive their time horizons shrinking, they prioritize emotionally meaningful goals. It fascinated me that older adults often report better affective experiences than younger adults, despite the physical and cognitive constraints that can accompany aging. This “paradox”—that emotional well-being can remain resilient or even improve in later life—became the driving force of my research. I felt a deep sense of purpose in investigating the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon and exploring how we can leverage these insights to support healthy aging for all.
Q: What do you love most about your line of work?
A: What I love most about my work is the opportunity to bridge an ever-evolving intellectual curiosity with tangible human impact. I feel a deep sense of gratitude for the freedom to explore the complex questions that drive our understanding of well-being from a lifespan development perspective. Beyond academic discovery, I am energized by witnessing the real-world impact of our research projects. Leading community-based interventions to reduce loneliness among older adults through randomized controlled trials has been incredibly rewarding. Observing firsthand—through both quantitative data and qualitative feedback—how participants experience reduced isolation, improved mental health, and better sleep quality is a powerful reminder of the practical value of our research. Knowing that these findings translate into healthier daily lives for real people provides my work with its deepest sense of purpose. Finally, I feel exceptionally fortunate to be part of a community of brilliant, high-integrity, and empowering individuals. Working alongside my mentors, collaborators, mentees, participants and many dedicated individuals across my broader professional network constantly reveals the best of humanity and motivates me to be a better researcher and a better person. Although my journey in this field spans just over a decade, I recognize a clear sense of personal and professional growth; I have grown through these relationships, gaining a more mature perspective on both the science of aging as well as my role within this field and our community.
Q: What projects are you working on in your current position?
A: My research focuses on promoting positive aging through two synergistic approaches. First, I explore aging-related strengths and shifts in goals using a combination of laboratory experiments and ecological momentary assessments. Second, I leverage these insights to enhance the well-being and reduce loneliness of older adults through randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in community settings.
Contrary to common perceptions of vulnerability, my collaborators and I have demonstrated that older adults often maintain higher levels of well-being even in adverse social environments, such as during periods of solitude. Our research shows that older adults are more adept at achieving daily emotional goals. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults coped better with COVID-19–related stress and reported a significantly smaller decline in life satisfaction compared to younger adults. While the public concentrate on how to help vulnerable older adults by providing various forms of support to enhance their well-being, my collaborators and I have empirically discovered that older adults can derive meaning and happiness from offering support to others and contributing to society, even amidst social crises. Our work found that older adults reported better well-being when they provided support to their adult children during the pandemic, rather than when they received support. Interestingly, those who provided more support than they received were associated with lower relationship satisfaction only in adult children and not in older mothers. These findings that helping others benefits the well-being of older adults extend beyond the family context to the broader communities. We found that older adults experience well-being benefits from engaging in volunteering, both in general circumstances and during the pandemic.
We translate these laboratory findings into community interventions through RCTs. My collaborators and I developed and tested a volunteering promotion manual, which significantly increased volunteering time from 52 to 418 minutes per month at follow-up. During the COVID-19 pandemic, my collaborator, Prof. Kee Lee Chou, and our team trained 375 older adults with secondary education as lay mentors to deliver psychosocial support to 1,151 vulnerable and socially isolated peers. We observed mutual benefits: older lay counselors reported significant reductions in loneliness and improvements in well-being compared to controls. Among intervention recipients, there were marked reductions in loneliness, stress, depression, and anxiety, along with increased social support—gains that were sustained for up to 12 months. Our findings demonstrate the fact that empowering older adults to contribute to their families and society benefits both themselves and their care recipients.
Given our growing portfolio of RCTs targeting loneliness from multiple perspectives, I am now developing and validating machine learning models to predict individual responses to psychosocial interventions, with the goal of enabling more precise and personalized approaches to reducing loneliness in later life. This line of work is supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong. At the same time, I remain committed to advancing initiatives that empower older adults to contribute meaningfully to society, fostering a “triple-win” outcome that benefits older adults themselves, other people, and the broader community.
Q: What was the best piece of advice you got early on in your career you’d like to pass on to emerging gerontologists?
A: Every researcher’s journey is unique, and staying true to one's own curiosity is where the most meaningful work begins. Embracing diverse possibilities—without feeling the need to set early boundaries—allows for a more holistic understanding of the "whole person" as they age. While navigating unfamiliar territories to find one’s own path may take time, this openness ultimately fosters a much wider horizon for professional evolution.