I started working on sPHENIX in fall 2020, when I started my junior year at Columbia University.

What is the focus of your work on the sPHENIX experiment?

I got opportunities to work on several different things for sPHENIX :) I have the luck to help with various parts of our simulation, calorimeter data reconstruction, calibration, and online monitoring. I have also done some small data analysis tasks which I really enjoyed, for example, calculating the corrected pi0 and eta spectrum from our early p+p running data.

Where were you born and what is your educational background before your current position?

I was born in Beijing, China, and grew up living on a college campus, where I spent most of my childhood until I finished high school. Afterward, I moved to the US for my undergraduate studies, starting at Augustana University, before transferring to Columbia.

What is the title of your Ph.D. or tentative title? Awards or biggest talk highlight?

I haven’t decided my thesis topic yet, hopefully related to photon-tagged jets.

How did you decide to go into heavy ion or spin research?

I was fascinated by the Standard Model from a young age. Then, in my freshman year, I began research with Nathan Grau, analyzing PHENIX data, which was an amazing experience.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I spend a lot of time listening to music and attempting to learn how to sing the songs I like. To further justify my relatively uneventful spare time: I sleep quite a lot on average.

Fun fact?

I played piano and saxophone when I was young(not anymore :( ). I really like dogs, schnauzers and poodles in particular.