Chen ZHAO (赵辰)

Chen ZHAO (赵辰)

Ph.D. Candidate in DREAM group @HKUST

About me

Welcome! I’m Chen Zhao (赵辰), currently a third-year Ph.D. candidate at the DREAM group at the The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2022-Present), supervised by Prof. Ding He (何丁). My study is proudly supported by the prestigeous Hong Kong PhD Fellowship. During my Ph.D. study, I was a visiting student at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Germany, working closely with Dr. Oliver Lechtenfeld, and in the OMGroup at the Southern University of Science and Technology, working closely with Prof. Junjian Wang.

Prior to this, I got a master’s degree at Zhejiang University in 2022, supervised by Prof. Ding He and Prof. Yongge Sun. I enjoyed my fabulous years at China University of Geosciences and Washington University in St. Louis and obtained a B.S. in Geology in 2019, supervised by Prof. Yuanbao Wu and Prof. Kun Wang.

My research interests include the areas of Chemical Oceanography and Machine Learning, with focus on:

  • Elucidating the carbon cycling in estuarine systems and its impacts on climate change
  • Developing new data science toolbox to address molecular geochemistry issues

I am always open to potential collaborations, please feel free to contact me at czhaobk@connect.ust.hk :)

BTW, My Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is ESTJ, which basically stands for “Efficiently Stuck To the Job.” Yep, workaholic!

Education

  • Ph.D., The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2022 - Present
  • M.S., Zhejiang University, 2022
  • B.S., China University of Geosciences, 2019

Visiting Experience

  • Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany, 2024
  • Southern University of Science and Technology, China, 2024
  • Moscow State University, Russia, 2019
  • Washington University in St. Louis, USA, 2018
  • The University of Sydney, Australia, 2017

Selected Honors, Membership, and Services

  • Postgraduate Research Award (First Place), Department of Ocean Science, HKUST, 2025
  • Hong Kong PhD Fellowship, University Grants Committee of Hong Kong, 2022 - 2026
  • Zhejiang Province Outstanding Master’s Thesis (Top 1%), Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, 2023
  • Conference Travel Allowance of HKPFS, HKUST, 2023 - 2024
  • HKUST RedBird PhD Award, HKUST, 2022 - 2023
  • Research Travel Grant, HKUST, 2023 - 2024
  • Outstanding Graduates of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, 2022
  • Outstanding Student, Zhejiang University, 2021
  • Top Ten Outstanding Students of China University of Geosciences (Top 1%), 2018
  • Journal Reviewer: Environmental Science and Technology, since 2023
  • Membership: American Geophysical Union, European Association of Geochemistry
  • President of Student Union: School of Earth Science at China University of Sciences, 2017-2018

Seminar

  • Princeton University, Geosciences Department, 2024
  • The HKUST, Department of ocean science, 2024


“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.”
― Ronald Reagan

“If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery.” ― Enrico Fermi