About me

I’m a space physicist (note: not a “physicist” because I have no physics degrees) and currently a faculty member of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. My research projects focus on the development of sophisticated numerical tools for the geospace environment with potential applications to space weather prediction. Working closely with my colleagues, I’m also interested in applying computational methods to the broad area of space physics, including the upper atmospheric system, planetary magnetospheres, solar physics, basic plasma physics etc.

I am quite fortunate to make a living by working on the things I like, that is, I study MHD because I like the elegant way it describes the nature, and I’m always curious about how things work in such a fundamental way. Grew up in Hangzhou and spent many years in New Hampshire and Colorado, it is clear to me that life is such an epic adventure that doing research is “a” job but not the only job of mine. So while not messing with the codes, manuscripts and (some) referees, I enjoy doing loads of other fun things including western/traditional music instruments, Chinese calligraphy/painting, outdoor/indoor sports and of course good beer/whiskey, to remind myself that, not taking myself too seriously on many occasions is always a good thing.

PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

If you are a student with a broad interest in modeling space plasma environments and with a general love for applied math and science, feel free to contact me. There are plenty opportunities within my current projects/collaborations given the set of state-of-art tools I’m working on with my colleagues, and I’m always keen to get started on something new, difficult and exciting.

Please contact me before applying to the HKU grad school - I may not be recruiting students every year..