Yingfei Chen, scientific discoveries and engagement

Yingfei receives the 2025 Reid Memorial Scholarship for his significant contributions to research at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, using lidar to study the upper atmosphere. He has collected invaluable data for the scientific community to use in the coming decades. In addition, Yingfei has used lidar data collected here in Boulder to make eye-opening scientific discoveries on the thermosphere-ionosphere metal layers; his discoveries have advanced the study of space-atmosphere interactions. Finally, Yingfei has actively engaged in CIRES and CU Boulder outreach, including hosting a webinar from Antarctica for K-12 students, giving an early-career lightning talk at Rendezvous 2023, and collaborating with scientists at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center scientists on upper atmosphere research.