It all began with the swallows

“I never imagined I would become a scientist because of them,” she told us. “But now I feel like life has come full circle.”

Today, Jingjing is a tenure-track assistant professor and a new DIAS Fellow of Biology, and her work explores one of nature’s hidden abilities: how animals sense the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate the world.

“Magnetic… almost magic.”

For Jingjing, navigation is a story written in physics, chemistry, and biology all at once.

When animals migrate at night, they rely on cues we cannot see. Tiny proteins in their eyes and brains respond to Earth’s magnetic field through quantum reactions.

“One question naturally leads you across disciplines,” she says. “To understand the chemistry, you need physics. To understand the biology, you need chemistry. It all connects.”

Sensing the world in all its dimensions

As a young scientist, Jingjing is eager to explore a bigger world of animal sensations. ‘We see the brilliance of light and hear the rhythm of sound,” she says. “All of these sensations are orchestrated by protein molecules. When the neuron protein balance is disturbed, life itself falters.” In her research group, she plans to further explore animal vision, hearing along with magnetoreception. 

Why DIAS?

Before joining us, Jingjing spent her career surrounded mostly by natural scientists. DIAS offered something new.

“I have never had a good chance to speak deeply with humanities or social science researchers. But navigation, space, direction - these shape human culture and mental health too. No one wants to feel lost. DIAS is where these conversations can finally meet.”

She hopes to build bridges across fields, exploring how humans navigate, how culture shapes our spatial sense, and how technologies like Google Maps may weaken abilities that once grounded us in nature.

Outside the lab

Jingjing recharges by running through the forests south of campus, hiking, camping and cooking traditional dishes that her grandparents taught her.

And she finds inspiration in watching her daughter grow:

“Children’s curiosity reminds me of the natural human abilities we all begin with. And where it started for me.”