Yingfei Chen is a fourth-year PhD student working in the Chu Lidar Group and a 2024 CIRES Graduate Student Research Award recipient. He studies metal layers in the upper atmosphere using sensitive lidar instruments. Chen was initially drawn to CIRES because of the institute’s cutting-edge environmental science research. “I am grateful to be a part of the collaborative and interdisciplinary community,” he said. Chen grew up in Yangzhou, China, and his favorite meal is Dazhu Gansi, simmered tofu noodles, because “every ingredient is an homage to the Yangtze River Delta.”

Humans of CIRES Q&A

Q: What do you work on at CIRES?
I'm now a 4th year PhD student working in the Chu Lidar Group at CIRES. My research mainly focuses on studying thermosphere-ionosphere metal (TIMt) layers in the Earth’s Space-Atmosphere Interaction Region (SAIR) using high-sensitivity LIDAR systems.

Q: What brought you to CIRES?
As a PhD applicant, I was drawn to CIRES because I knew it was pushing forward cutting-edge environmental science. In particular, I was excited by the pioneering work of Dr. Xinzhao Chu and her group in upper atmospheric sciences and their long-running Antarctic LIDAR campaign. Now, years later, I am grateful to be a part of the collaborative and interdisciplinary community at CIRES. Through it, I have learned from and worked with scientists from many fields, grown as a science communicator and leader, and received amazing support as I work towards my PhD and future career.

Q: Where did you grow up?
I was born and grew up in Yangzhou. It is a historically and culturally significant city located in Jiangsu Province, China.

Q: If you could only eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
That would be my favorite Chinese meal: Yangzhou Dazhu Gansi. There is no dish more exemplary of Jiangnan cuisine than the Yangzhou classic Dazhu Gansi, simmered tofu noodles. Every ingredient is an homage to the Yangtze River Delta—duck gizzards, miniature river shrimp, slivers of chicken and rich Jinhua ham, baby greens, fresh mushrooms, and the tofu itself.