Yifan Zhu

Yifan Zhu

About Me

I am a Ph.D. student in Chemical Oceanography joined in the department of Ocean and Earth Sciences at Old Dominion University in Fall 2017. I received the B.S. degree in Chemistry from Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China, in 2013, and the M.S. degree in Marine Chemistry from Xiamen University, Xiamen, China, in December 2015. Before joining the program at ODU, I worked as a research assistant at State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL) for 1.5 years.

I care a lot about marine environment, because it is closely bound up with our life as one of the critical components of earth system. It is not only providing many of the natural resources we have today, but also regulating the climate in earth. My primary research goals during Ph.D. are directed toward understanding the sources, fate, and ecological effects of reactive nitrogen compounds (e.g., ammonium, nitrate, cyanate, urea, peptides, amino acids etc.) in water systems include the Lafayette River in City of Norfolk and ocean fronts (e.g., Mid-Atlantic continental shelf break front zone, and South China Sea-Kuroshio boundary). I enjoy culturing marine plankton organisms (e.g., Synechococcus) and studying how harmful algal species, Margalefidium polykrikoides, mobilize organic nitrogen during the bloom in summer Lafayette River.I also have experience and skills of handling trace level nutrients analysis and methods development.

Apart from my research, I like traveling, hiking, and playing guitar and yoga.