He is a specialist in the art and archaeology of early China with a broad interest in the interconnections within Eurasia. From art historical and technical perspectives, his first monograph manuscript examines the rise of indigenous bronze industry in the Yangtze River region in the late second millennium B.C. In the 15th century B.C., the Erligang state expanded from the Central Plain, and along the way disseminated its highly established bronze art and metallurgy.

His research has three foci: (1) harmful algal blooms (HABs), (2) microbiomics, and (3) molecular systems biology. The HAB research aims to identify the functional genomic repertoire that drive bloom formation, and the interaction between functional repertoire and eutrophic conditions through multi-omics integration. Microbiomics aims to the understand the interactions among different group of microbial taxa in microbiomes of aquatic and soil environments, and the underlies genomic functional mechanisms.

He is interested in probability and combinatorics including randomized algorithms, random graphs and random tree, in particular: Galton-Watson trees; binary search trees and split trees; random directed graphs; peer-to-peer computer networks; and graph coloring. He also likes programming and using computers to experiment, prove, and teach mathematics. He has taught courses in applied mathematics and computer science, such as calculus, combinatorics, discrete mathematics, and algorithms. Cai has an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. from McGill University, Montreal.

His research focuses on the transcultural ramifications of slave gathering warfare in mainland Southeast Asia, Northeast India and coastal Bengal, with a special focus on enslaved artisans, religious rituals, and processes of creolization and cultural exchange. His research has received support from Fulbright-Hays (DDRA), the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Watumull Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. He received the World History Association's best dissertation award in 2014.

His research focus is the field of medicinal inorganic chemistry. Specifically, he is interested in the potential of transition metal compounds, particularly those of ruthenium, manganese, zinc and copper, to be used as proto-pharmaceuticals. Their use as agents in anticancer, antibacterial, and anti-diabetic chemotherapy is of primary interest. This is a multidisciplinary process involving chemistry, biology and biochemistry. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include inorganic and general chemistry. Beckford has a B.Sc. (Hons) in chemistry and a Ph.D.

He is a hybrid medium artist and musician that creates work at the intersection of sound art, computational design, networked systems, and mechanical life installation and sculpture. He is a lifetime fellow at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, one of the oldest new media art institutions, based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. His artwork has been displayed in the United States, Europe, Iran and China in exhibitions such as "Synthetic Times" and "Trans Life" at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing, and the Ho Gallery and Chelsea Museum, New York.