Hi, I am Xinting Yu (余馨婷). I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Texas San Antonio. I will be accepting prospective Ph.D. students and postdocs. Email/refer if interested!
The main focus of my research is characterizing and understanding planetary materials using experimental material science techniques. My experimental works also interface theoretical modeling to gain a comprehensive understanding of atmosphere and surface processes in and outside the solar system.
My main research directions can be summarized in the following three categories:
The laboratory perspective: creating a Planetary Material CHaractErization Facility (PMCHEF) and a robust planetary material property database
My main career goal is to build a standardized planetary material characterization facility to characterize a range of planetary materials, including planetary and exoplanetary aerosol analog samples, field samples, meteorites, planetary regolith simulants, and planetary return samples. With the data from PMCHEF, I hope to create a material property database for the community and support exploration in and outside the solar system. Here are the two available databases from our group: a Titan material property database and an exoplanet haziness and property database.
The theory perspective: experimental data-driven theoretical work to understand atmospheric and surface processes in and outside the solar system
The measured material properties from PMCHEF have been and will enable a range of theoretical studies to understand various processes on real planets. Here are some processes I am interested in studying: cloud formation and cloud-haze interactions in planetary atmospheres, sediment transport and abrasion on planetary surfaces, and outgassing from planetary interiors.
The modeling perspective: feedback between planetary atmospheres and surfaces and identify habitable surfaces on exoplanets
My work at the interface of the solar system/exoplanetary sciences and atmosphere/surface processes has driven me to think about atmosphere-surface feedback on exoplanets. Inspired by the atmospheric composition dichotomy between Titan (with a cold, shallow surface) and Jupiter (with deep/no surface), my recent work has found a new way to indirectly identify solid/liquid surfaces on exoplanets with just atmospheric characterization data. There is still a lot to be done on the theoretical side, but with the incoming JWST atmospheric characterization data, I hope to really test out whether “super-Earths” are statistically probable in the sub-Neptune populations and their habitability.
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I was a 51 Pegasi b postdoc fellow at UC Santa Cruz (2019-2022). It was a great time working with excellent theorists like my postdoc supervisor Dr. Xi Zhang, and Dr. Jonathan Fortney, and I also learned a ton from my new experimental mentors in the area, Dr. Ella Sciamma-O’Brien, and Dr. Myriam Telus. Even though I spent most of my postdoc time staying at home during the pandemic, our group did make some good progress on a range of laboratory (from the excellent UG slug Jialin Li), theoretical (from the excellent UG slug Austin Dymont), and database-building projects (from many excellent UG slugs Yuna Yu, Julia Garver, and Abigale Hawthorn). It was fun sneaking into the empty campus and laboratory, bringing my home depot gears, and building something useful (thanks to my very helpful hubby Xu). My heart will stay with the food in the bay area and the scenery in the Santa Cruz mountains!
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During my Ph.D., I studied Titan’s surface by maneuvering all sorts of nanotechnologies. After 4.5 years of training in grad school, I finally got transitioned from playing with bulk techniques like oven and wind tunnels (my first paper here for you) to being a world-class expert in playing with small particles and balls (second paper for you to enjoy) and poking thin films (third paper, my favorite, don’t miss this one).
My English is also much better after staying in a new country (the United States of America, Earth, Solar System) for six years: according to a German couple in Ecuador, I speak perfect English; my advisor Sarah also believes I am the first non-native English speaking person to win the best grad oral presentation award in LPSC (please find my name in the Dwornik awardees list, Hooray!). I can speak Spanish and Japanese. And, of course, I speak perfect mandarin Chinese 🙂
My favorite snacks are the giant sandworms on Titan. However, now reluctantly being sent back to Earth, I am trying to find the best restaurant on Earth (to replace my favorite sandworm snacks). Please read my reviews on Yelp. I like to handle animals and talk to kids in an Earth zoo in Maryland in my leisure time.
I also occasionally run marathons. Hopefully, I can finish my 10th marathon soon, if I ever get in the New York Marathon (after six failures in the drawing). Maybe I already lost hope, since now I am just hopelessly working out at my local gym and doing some top-rope climbings.
During the WFH period, I found a feline co-worker, Cookie (Chinese name: 阿猪), who has been providing both great help and distraction to my life, in different ways.
After reading all these memes, if you decide you still like me and want to talk to me further, please redirect to the contact page or email me (xinting.yu@utsa.edu, this way is faster).
