This is Yichen Liu (刘 亦 辰), a Ph.D. student in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Arizona, working with Professor Xiaohui Fan. My research focuses on observational astrophysics, particularly high-redshift quasars, galaxy evolution, and the early universe, using data from modern astronomical facilities including the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Before joining the University of Arizona, I studied at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where I majored in astrophysics and mathematics and minored in physics, computer science, and chemistry. I spent my first three undergraduate years at the University of Macau (UM), where I worked in Professor Hongchao Liu’s research group on single-pixel imaging and ghost imaging. At UIUC, I worked with Professor Xin Liu on astronomical survey data analysis and active galactic nuclei (AGNs).
My current research mainly involves the analysis of astronomical imaging and spectroscopic observations from large surveys and space telescopes. I am particularly interested in quasars in the epoch of cosmic reionization, the growth of supermassive black holes, and the evolution of galaxies in the early universe. I also work on astronomical image analysis methods for undersampled observations and dithered imaging data.
I am also an amateur astrophotographer. Over the years, I have taken many pictures of stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets. Check out my astrophotography here. I built a remote observatory in Zhangjiakou, Hebei, equipped with a 10-inch telescope, a cooled CCD camera, and monitoring systems including an all-sky camera. The observatory supports imaging in broadband filters (B, V, R, I) and narrowband filters (Hα, SII, and OIII). Compared with my hometown, Beijing, the isolation in the mountains provides much darker skies for astronomical observation. Through remote desktop access, I can capture the night sky from almost anywhere in the world. However, increasing light pollution from urban development, high-speed railways, and the 2022 Winter Olympics has gradually affected the site, so I am considering relocating the observatory in the future.
This site’s root domain, “.fit” (or more commonly, “.fits”), refers to the standard astronomical data format widely used in astrophysics. I frequently use tools such as AstroPy, DS9, PixInsight, and JWST pipeline software for astronomical image processing, photometry, and data analysis.
Education
University of Arizona (Arizona, US)
Ph.D. Student in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Aug 2024 – Present
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois, US)
Bachelor of Science in Astrophysics and Mathematics, Aug 2022 – May 2024
Minor in Physics, Computer Science, and Chemistry
LAS Honors Program
University of Macau (Macau, China)
Undergraduate Coursework in Applied Physics and Chemistry, Aug 2019 – May 2022
Honours College
High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China (Beijing, China)
High School Diploma, Sep 2016 – Jul 2019
Selected Publications
- Yichen Liu, Colin J. Burke, Diego Miura, et al., “Dwarf Active Galactic Nuclei from Variability for the Origins of Seeds (DAVOS): Properties of Variability‐selected AGN in the Dark Energy Survey Deep Fields,” The Astrophysical Journal 994, 162 (2025)
- Xiaojing Lin, Xiaohui Fan, Zheng Cai, et al. (incl. Yichen Liu), “The Discovery of Little Red Dots in the Local Universe: Signatures of Cool Gas Envelopes,” The Astrophysical Journal 997, 364 (2026)
Last Updated on 13 hours by Yichen Liu