Biography

I am a second-year Ph.D. student at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), currently advised by Prof. Boris Kozinsky. The group focus on designing and using machine-learning accelerated computational methods such as MLFF to improve our understanding of materials. I work mostly focuses on the use of symmetry and representation to aid the design of neural network ansätze for Quantum Monte Carlo. My received my undergraduate education at Brown University. At Brown, I had the privilege of working with Prof. Kavita Ramanan on connecting Spin-Glass models with statistical mechanical predictions such as the Bethe prediction.

Outside the physical sciences, I also have a devoted interest in Linguistics, especially in historical phonology, the study and reconstruction of language sounds in the distant past. In many cases, reconstructions can extend to a time before written records. This provides explanation for the divergence of dialects and emergence of new languages. Perhaps more importantly, historical linguistics paints a fuller picture of the cultural histories that are not explicitly recorded.

Besides academics, I also enjoy watching anime and singing. I am a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, a student choir at Harvard University.

On my name: My legal name is Yizhong Hu (胡奕中, [xu˧˥ ʔi˥˩ ʈʂʊŋ˥]), but for academic purposes, I will use Yizhong Richard Hu, shortened to Yizhong R. Hu or just Richard Hu.