I am a PhD student at the Speech, Learning, and the Brain (SLaB) Lab at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), supervised by Prof. Quentin Zhen QIN. My PhD study is funded by the prestigious Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, RGC).

My research focuses on phonetics and psycholinguistics. Currently at HKUST, my work aims to uncover the mechanisms of learning and memory from a psycholinguistic perspective. Specifically, I examine how sleep, including both nocturnal sleep and daytime naps, facilitates non-native tone learning (i.e., Cantonese) through memory consolidation in older Mandarin-speaking adults. These projects explore the memory encoding, consolidation, and forgetting in aging brains to develop interventions against memory decline.

While my current work focuses on non-native tone learning, my earlier research investigated the production-perception link of native tones. My fascination with Chinese tones came from my first research project on tone variation and change. I am also interested in the cross-linguistic study of lexical tones. To date, I have conducted fieldwork on several Chinese dialects/languages (e.g., Jin and Gan Chinese), a challenging yet immensely rewarding experience!

Education

• MPhil/PhD, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Sep. 2023 – present
  • Linguistics, Division of Humanities (HUMA)
  • GPA: 4.3/4.3
• MA, Nankai University (NKU), Sep. 2020 – Jun. 2023
  • Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, College of Chinese Language and Culture
  • GPA: 91.85/100 (Ranking: 1/25)
• BA, Northeast Normal University (NENU), Sep. 2016 – Jun. 2020
  • Chinese Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts
  • GPA: 91.49/100 (Ranking: 2/119)

Grants

• Research Grants
  • HUMA Postgraduate Research Grant (HKUST), 2023 – 2025
  • Postgraduate Student Research Training Project (NKU), 2021
    • Awarded the Excellent Project (award rate: around 10%, 11 out of 91 funded projects)
• Travel Grants
  • Student Transportation Subsidy (Acoustical Society of America), 2024
  • Research Travel Grant (HKUST), 2024
  • International Conference Travel Grant (NKU), 2023

Awards (selected)

• Hong Kong PhD Fellowship (The Research Grants Council of Hong Kong), 2025/2026/2027
• RedBird PhD Award (HKUST), 2025
• Dr. Charles Chan Postgraduate Scholarship (HKUST), 2024
• Excellent Student (Summer School for Postgraduate Students in Jiangsu Province), 2024
• Postgraduate Studentship (HKUST), 2023/2024
• Excellent Paper for Young Researchers (International Symposium on Chinese Function Words and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language), 2022
• First-class Award in the Paper Competition of the College (NKU), 2021
• Scholarship for Recommended Postgraduate Students with Admission Exam Exemption (NKU), 2021
• Gongneng Scholarship (NKU), 2020/2021/2022
• Excellent Graduate (NENU), 2020
• National Scholarship (Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China), 2019
• Scholarship for Academic Specialty (NENU), 2018
• Presidential Scholarship (NENU), 2017/2018/2020
• Excellent Student (NENU), 2017/2018/2019/2020

Research

• Project of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (PI: Prof. Quentin Qin), Summer 2024
  • Research Assistant (data collection and analysis)
• Project of the Institute for Emerging Market Studies (PI: Prof. Quentin Qin), Winter 2024
  • Research Assistant (data collection and analysis)

Teaching

• HUMA 1010 Introduction to Language (HKUST), Fall 2024
  • Teaching Assistant
• HUMA 2400 Approaches to Humanities in China Studies (HKUST), Spring 2024/2025
  • Teaching Assistant

Service

• HUMA Research Postgraduate (RPg) Student Representative (HKUST), 2024 – 2025
• Student Assistant (International Cooperation and Exchange Office of NKU), 2023
• Social Practice Activity in the Summer Vacation (NKU), 2021
• Academic Representative of the Postgraduate Student Class Committee (NKU), 2020 – 2023

Memberships

• Acoustical Society of America (ASA), 2024 – present
• International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL), 2022 – 2023

Skills

• Phonetics: Praat; VoiceSauce
• Psychology: E-prime; Psychopy; Paradigm; DmDX; EEG data acquisition (Brain Products)
• Data preprocessing and analysis: R; Python; MATLAB (EEGLAB); SPSS
• Language: Mandarin (native); English (IELTS 7); Cantonese (beginner)

Contact me

• Email: kliubc@connect.ust.hk

Please navigate using the menu to access my publications and presentations.