Jianpeng Ma is a Fellow of the American Society for Medical Bioengineering, an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS), an Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society(APS), and a recipient of the 2004 Norman Hackermann Award for Chemical Research.

He joined Fudan University, China in 2018 after being Lodwick T. Bolin Professor in Biochemistry for Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University. Together with Professor Michael Levitt, he founded The Multiscale Research Institute for Complex Systems(MRICS) at Fudan University and served as its Dean.

Ma’s research interests include biophysics, computational biology, and structural biology. He is dedicated to the development of new computational methods for the study of biological systems that can be used to overcome the difficulties in experimental research and to solve important problems in complex biological systems in combination with experimental methods.

Ma investigates the relationship between structure and function in biological molecules through computational biophysics, structural biology and the development of mathematical algorithms for computer simulation; supra molecular complexes; computer-aided drug designs; and structural refinement strategies.

Ma is a pioneer in the field of biophysics and leading expert in developing computational methods that have substantially expanded the ability to simulate, model and refine flexible biomolecular systems based on experimental data at low to intermediate resolutions.

In order to conduct his investigations in computational biophysics and structural biology, Ma develops mathematical algorithms for the computer simulation of supra molecular complexes, computer-aided drug designs, and structural refinement strategies for experimental methods (x-ray crystal lography and electron microscopy reconstruction). He is an expert in using x-ray crystal lography to decipher the exact 3-D arrangement of atoms.

Ma’s research, which has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Welch Foundation, has been published nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals. His efforts have been honored by the Welch Foundation's Norman Hackerman Award for Chemical Research (2004); NSF CAREER Award (2003); and the Award for Chinese Distinguished Young Scholars Abroad (2003); and the Michael E.DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award (2008). He is also an elected fellow of the American Physical Society (2007), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2008), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2011).