Bio
I am a postdoctoral researcher in materials science at Rice University, developing AI agents for autonomous computational materials science.
I received my Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in May 2023, advised by Prof. Yuanyue Liu, and my B.S. in Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China in 2018. Previously, I worked on first-principles electron scattering and transport in 2D materials.
From electron transport to autonomous research
During my PhD, I used first-principles methods to calculate over 100 carrier mobilities across dozens of 2D materials (PRL 2023). The work led to the discovery of several high-mobility semiconductors, but it also revealed a practical reality: finding materials with good properties requires exploring a vast space, and each candidate demands significant human effort to set up, run, and interpret.
Regardless of methodology, computational materials research requires substantial effort in orchestrating simulations. Large language models have now shown they can write scientific code, call domain libraries correctly, and reason about computational outputs. That changes what is practical.
I see three axes of progress in computational materials science: simulating larger systems, achieving higher accuracy, and predicting a wider range of properties. I believe AI has the potential to push all three forward at the same time.