Yaqin Liu
I grew up in an extremely rural village in Hubei, China. It’s a community filled with traditional Chinese culture and natural beauty. I got interested in #environmental #economics during college and was inspired to study human behavior at the intersection of economic development and environmental conservation. That motivated me to pursue graduate education in environmental economics in the U.S.
WHOI provides a great opportunity for me to do policy-relevant work on #marine resources and an entrepreneurial atmosphere that always inspires me to try new projects that might not be possible at other institutions. One exciting project that I and a few colleagues from the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOPE) lab are pushing forward is using satellite data to detect #darkvessels [that turn off mandatory Automatic Identification System transponders] in the ocean. Our purpose is to build a system that can identify and track dark vessels that are engaged in illegal activities to enable real-time actions.
Here at WHOI, you can think large. You can think, “If we can solve this problem, it's going to help the world,” and then you reach out to people who have expertise in different areas to help. That’s the great part of WHOI. You can always find people to collaborate with.