What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I currently co-lead the Year 2 data release full-shape analysis using the 2-point and 3-point statistics. I am also a member of the DESI Publication Board.
Where were you born?
Shanghai, China
Where do you live now?
Munich, Germany
What do you do as part of DESI?
I work on extracting cosmological information from DESI’s galaxy and quasar clustering data, especially using higher-order statistics. I like thinking about how advanced statistical tools can reveal new features in the data. At the moment, besides co-leading the full-shape analysis effort, I work on improving the modelling of higher-order statistics, understanding the impact observational systematics, and using higher-order correlation functions to probe the underlying symmetries of the Universe.
What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
Being a cosmologist provides a licence to ask fundamental questions such as what is the beginning of the Universe? How did it evolve? How does spacetime emerge? It is a rare job where asking these questions is not only allowed, but I could even try to answer them myself. Not many activities can compete with that.
Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Think deeply about what genuinely drives you. Then approach those questions from every angle you can.
What do you do for fun?
Enjoy poetry, scotches, extreme sports, and German bread.
If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
Becoming scientist is my dream, I don’t really have a second one.
Maybe in 30 years, I will become a philosopher.
What excites/interests you most about DESI?
Science and people. DESI provides an extraordinary dataset; finding people who share similar goals and staring together at data collected from the night sky — there aren’t many better ways to experience being human.
