I realized that our detector is also producing an image. “We learned this model called Convolutional Neural Network, which we use to analyze an image. “As things unfolded, I started connecting the dots,” he says. There, Li began to see his PhD topic emerge. BU was collaborating with MIT and physicists from around the world in an experiment examining the nature of neutrinos called KamLAND-Zen. Winslow tapped Li to attend a five-day machine learning boot camp at MIT. Soon after, Grant introduced Li to Lindley Winslow, a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He pitched this unorthodox path to Grant, who told Li that if he could find a good topic, Grant would support him. He wanted to find something unique to work on - something only he could do. Most physics PhD candidates take the traditional path of adopting a topic studied by their advisor, following their guidelines to graduate. “I heard Jason keeps bragging about me, so I guess he still likes me.”Īfter UW, Li started working towards his PhD at Boston University (BU) with advisor Chris Grant. “I think of him as kind of the shepherd of my career,” Li says. It was during these meetings that Li was introduced to neutrino physics. If you try your hardest, and it doesn’t work, you’ll just be 30 - and you can still switch tracks.”Īs an undergraduate, Li’s advisor Jason Detweiler guided his course load, helped him participate in research, and met with him for weekly advisory sessions - a rare opportunity. “You’re only 20 years old,” she told him. At the end of summer, he visited an aunt in Canada, and her advice helped him to commit. Li did well in the class but was still unsure about a career in physics. On a whim, he enrolled in a particle physics course over the summer session of his sophomore year. Disappointed, he was forced to consider other majors. But the school has one of the world’s most competitive computer science programs, and Li’s GPA needed to be higher for the department. When he got to UW, he tried to pursue computer science, thinking the major would make him more employable after graduation. He ended up in San Pedro, California, attending a Catholic high school, and then enrolled at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. She said: ‘You should go out and see the world!'” “In the beginning, I was slightly against it because the U.S. “My mom thought it was a great opportunity,” Li says. During his freshman year, he learned of an exchange program run by an international non-governmental organization, the Laurentian Institute, that helped Chinese students attend high school in the United States. Li grew up in Jinan in the Shandong Province of China. So, what we have to do as physicists is to convert its message into something that we can actually understand.” Coming to America “Unfortunately, nature doesn’t speak English. “My deepest research interest is to understand what’s actually happening within nature,” Li says. Scientists believe they are born in giant active galactic nuclei called blazars, powered by material falling into supermassive black holes. The highest-energy neutrinos come from far out in space. A million times less massive than electrons, they can be created by potassium’s radioactive decay inside the human body, in nuclear reactors and particle accelerators on Earth, and by the nuclear processes inside stars. Unlike many other subatomic particles, neutrinos are elementary, meaning they can’t be subdivided. Neutrinos constitute the building blocks of the universe. Li uses machine learning to detect neutrinos.
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