Education and Experiences
2007-2011, B.S. in Physics, Fudan University
2011-2016, Ph.D. in Physics, New York University
2016-2020, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Current position
Assistant professor at Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies.
PI of Center for Quantitive Biology.
PI of Center for Life Science.
Research Interests
My main research field is theoretical biological physics, and I aim to understand complex biological systems using the language of physics. I am primarily interested in phenomena that are widely observed across various species. Current research interests include theoretical studies of gene expression, cell physiology, and soft living matter.
My research goal is to find unifying models that can quantitatively reproduce experimental observations and, in the meantime, make predictions that can be experimentally tested. To achieve this goal, the most challenging step is finding an appropriate mathematical model that captures the essential ingredients of the system under study and neglects those irrelevant details. In condensed matter physics, the essential variables are usually easy to identify as systems are mostly homogeneous. However, biological systems are generally much more complex and heterogeneous (think about a eukaryotic cell that consists of various organelles and biomolecules); therefore, identifying the essential variables may not be straightforward and often requires some physical intuitions. For physicists, this is probably the most exciting part of biological physics.