Mengke Li

Curriculum Vitae

I am an N3AS Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley, where I began in November 2023. I received my Ph.D. in Physics from Clemson University in December 2023 under the supervision of Prof. Bradley Meyer, and my B.S. in Physics from Zhengzhou University in June 2018.

One can check out my CV for more details.

Research

I study how the heaviest elements in the universe are made through the rapid neutron capture process ($r$-process) in explosive astrophysical environments. My work combines theoretical modeling, observational data, and machine learning to explore the role of exotic nuclei and their impact on the chemical fingerprints we observe in the universe.

One can find my publications at Google Scholar.

Talks

My invited and contributed talks are listed below.

Invited Talks

• 2025 Oct – Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP), APS, Chicago, IL
  "Machine Learning for the Properties of Exotic Nuclei"
• 2025 Oct – Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP), APS, Chicago, IL
  "Machine Learning Nuclear Masses for the Astrophysical r-process"
• 2025 Oct – Triangle Nuclear Theory Colloquium, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
  "Bridging Nuclei and Stars: Constraining Nuclear Mass Models with the r-Process Observables"
• 2025 Sep – Astrophysics Chat, University of California, Berkeley, CA
  "Heavy Element Formation: From Nuclear Properties to Astrophysical Observables"
• 2025 July – IReNA-UKAKUREN, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
  "Constraining Nuclear Mass Models with the r-Process Observables with multi-objective functions."
• 2025 June – Gordon Research Seminar, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
  "Constraining Nuclear Mass Models with the r-Process Observables with multi-objective functions."
• 2025 Apr – Astrophysics Seminar, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
  "Bridging Nuclei and Stars: Constraining Nuclear Mass Models with the r-Process Observables."
• 2024 Jun – N3AS Annual Meeting, Berkeley, CA
  "GrRproc: A Graph-based Method to Calculate r-Process."
• 2024 Jan – Astrophysics Seminar, IHEP, Beijing, China
  "An Introduction to Astrophysical r-Process."
• 2023 Nov – N3AS Workshop, APS, Honolulu, HI
  "GrRproc: A Graphic Way of Calculating the Abundances of Heavy Nuclei."
• 2023 May – Frontier Summer School, MSU, Lansing, MI
  "Atomic Mass with Machine Learning for the Study of r-Process."
• 2022 Aug – Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, Los Alamos, NM
  "Nuclear Mass with Machine Learning and Application to the Astrophysical r-Process."

Contributed Talks

• 2025 July – GravNu, California State University, Fullerton, CA
  "Constraining Nuclear Mass Models with the r-Process Observables with multi-objective functions."
• 2025 June – CeNAM, Ohio University, Athens, OH
  "Constraining Nuclear Mass Models with the r-Process Observables with multi-objective functions."
• 2025 Mar – APS Global Physics Summit, Anaheim, CA
  "Graph-based recursive relations for computing and analyzing r-process abundances."
• 2024 Jul – N3AS Summer School, Santa Cruz, CA
  "Applying graph theory to r-process nucleosynthesis calculation."
• 2024 Jun – CeNAM Frontier Meeting, South Bend, IN
  "GrRproc: A Graph-based Method to Calculate r-Process."
• 2023 Nov – DNP, APS, Honolulu, HI
  "Atomic Mass with Machine Learning for Astrophysical r-Process."
• 2023 May – CeNAM Frontier Meeting, MSU, Lansing, MI
  "Machine Learning Nuclear Properties for the Rapid Neutron Capture Process."
• 2022 Oct – DNP, APS, New Orleans, LA
  "Extrapolating Mixture Density Network Predictions: Application to the Astrophysical r-Process."
• 2022 Jul – Theoretical Division, Los Alamos, NM
  "Nuclear Mass with Machine Learning and Application to the Astrophysical r-Process."
• 2022 Jul – Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos, NM
  "Machine Learning for Nuclear Masses with a Probabilistic Neural Network."
• 2021 Oct – DNP, APS, Boston, MA
  "Dependence of (n, γ)–(γ, n) Equilibrium r-Process Abundances on Nuclear Physics."

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';