Yifan obtained his undergraduate degree in Applied Physics from Caltech; and his graduate degrees are in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from UCLA. Yifan continued his research at JPL as a postdoc where his research involves using data fusion of satellite remote sensing (lidar, passive optical reflectance, activate radar backscatter) and machine learning (Maximum Entropy model) for the study of vegetation as a part of the global carbon cycle. He is currently interested in bringing new developments in deep learning with artificial neural networks to the application of remote sensing of vegetation biophysical properties.