#  Bio Sketch 

 



 ##  

  expand\_more  

 
  

 

 I grew up in Beijing, China. I studied at [Yuanpei college](https://yuanpei.pku.edu.cn/) in [Peking University](https://english.pku.edu.cn/), where I majored in theoretical physics and took additional courses in philosophy, math and psychology to lay my foundation of knowledge. Mentored by the computational neuroscientist Louis Tao, I initiated my journey of neuroscience. There I learned the taste of a theorist, but I also liked to use data to drive theory and hypothesis generation. So in 2017, I collaborated with the primate visual neuroscientist [Shiming Tang](https://mgv.pku.edu.cn/english/people/lbd/ls/220187.htm) to analyze and model 2-photon imaging data from macaque V1; and I interned with [Alex Reyes](https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/alexander-reyes.html) in NYU to develop algorithms to analyze traces of whole-cell electrophysiology in mice auditory cortex.

 After graduation in 2018, I came to the [neuroscience program](https://neuroscience.wustl.edu/) in Washington University in St. Louis. There I started to think about how to combine computational thinking with experimental methods and data. Driven by this, I did research rotations at three different levels of the brain but all require interesting computational methods to deal with big data: from [EM connectomics of mice LGN](https://sites.wustl.edu/morganlab/), to [light-sheet imaging of fish](https://sites.wustl.edu/holylab/), to [visual hierarchy of monkeys](https://ponce.hms.harvard.edu/). Finally, I joined the [Carlos Ponce lab](https://ponce.hms.harvard.edu/) in 2019.

 In the Ponce lab, fascinated by the [closed-loop experimental approach](https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(19)30391-5.pdf) of studying vision, I worked on several developments of the Evolution system: develop / adapt optimization algorithms, analyze and extend to other image generators, etc. Moreover, trained in physics, I was deeply interested in modern geometry / topology and how this view could impact the analysis of dynamics, representation and networks. So I applied differential geometric notion and techniques to analyze the neural representations in the brain and in [the neural networks](https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.06006).

 In Sep. 2021, o[ur lab](https://ponce.hms.harvard.edu/) moved to Harvard Medical School Neurobiology Department. So I'm here now!

 Out of lab, I'm also interested in reading, learning traditional chinese dance, and doing fun coding projects!