I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, studying Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology. My advisor is Prof. Andreas Berlind.
Before I came to Vanderbilt, I completed my Bachelor's and Master's degree in Physics at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, which is also my hometown.
My Curriculum Vitae
Contact:
Email:
Office: SC 6911
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee 37240, USA
Research
My research interests go across many orders of magnitude, from the Galactic structure of our Milky Way to the very large scale structure of the Universe. I use computational simulations, as well as astronomical survey data.
Primordial Non-Gaussianity
The standard inflationary paradigm predicts nearly Gaussian and scale invariant primordial density fluctuations. However, even the simplest inflation model predicts some small deviation from Gaussianity. Constraining and detecting primordial non-Gaussianity provide a very powerful tool to probe the very early universe. We use LasDamas simulations to test different observables of large-scale structure as probes of primordial non-Gaussianity.
Cosmic Voids
Voids are very underdense regions in the universe that contain very few or no galaxies. Though finding voids is not an easy job, voids occupy huge amount of volume in the universe and contain lots of information about the cosmology. Using cosmic voids to constrain cosmological parameters is a very interesting and challenging project.
Star Clustering in our Milky Way
Stars in our Milky Way provide invaluable information about the Galactic structure as well as galaxy formation in general. We plan to use correlation function statistics of stars to study the Galactic structure. The SEGUE sample of G-dwarf stars represents an unbiased random sub-sample of the stars in a big volume, thus is great samples to use.
Social
When I am not doing research, I enjoy doing many different kinds of works. As an amateur programmer, I am helping administrating and editing the Vanderbilt Astronomy Group's website and AstroWiki. Sometimes I write short articles on tips of using computers to do science. Now I am also planing an iOS app project that builds an easy to use cosmological calculator on iOS devices.
This year I serve as a committee member of Vanderbilt Chinese Students and Scholars Association (VUCSSA). I am in charge of the VUCSSA mailing list and website administration, as well as being involved in organizing many activities. I built a whole new WordPress based site for VUCSSA, and helped VUCSSA get 2011-2012 Vanderbilt Outstanding International Student Organization Award.
When I am not working at all, I like reading, traveling, and all kinds of awesome food. I am also a movie fan and spend many of my weekends' afternoons at my favorite Belcourt theatre.
It's easy to know more about me. I am online or dead: