Dr. Huang was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Carnegie-Mellon University, St. Louis University, and UCLA. Since 1983, he has been professor at the Department of Psychology in National Taiwan University and also a research fellow at Academia Sinica. He served as President of the Taiwanese Psychological Association, Chairperson at the Department of Psychology and Center for Teacher Education in National Taiwan University, and Director General at the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences in National Science Council.

After 2000, he entered the Cabinet to be a Minister without Portfolio and the Executive Director for the Commission for 921 Earthquake Post-Disaster Recovery. At 2002-2004, he was appointed the Minister for Ministry of Education. In 2005-2014, he served as the President of China Medical University (CMU, Taiwan). He is now the University Professor at the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences in CMU and also the President of Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) and the President of Taiwan Association of Institutional Research (TAIR).