Using genetic markers, the research group led by Prof Bing Su systematically studied the extensive populations of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and North Asia as well as multiple ethnic populations from China. They demonstrated that modern humans in East Asia share a recent common ancestor in Africa and, therefore, provided further support for the “Out of Africa” hypothesis of the origin of modern humans. They have published a series of articles in premier scientific journals, including Science, American Journal of Human Genetics and PNAS. In 2001, Science (Vol. 292, Iss. 5519) published a report introducing the study of modern human origin in East Asia, while Scientific American (Oct 2001) also reported this study as “a splendid example of honorable science…”. The related research has received national scientific awards from the Ministry of Education in 2003 and Ministry of Science and Technology in 2007.