acknowledgments.tex

\begin{acknowledgments}

When I was born in Apr 1997, my father Guigen Zeng named me \textit{Jinzhe}.
In Chinese, ``jin'' means \textit{promotion} and ``zhe'' means \textit{wisdom} or \textit{philosophy}.
This name is a wish that I can be a wise person and even get a PhD degree.
I was very fortunate to be born in that era, when
the President Jiang Zemin,
who passed away two years ago today,
started to support the advancement of science in China\cite{Jiang_Science_2000_v288_p2317} and encourge Chinese students studying abroad\cite{NoAuthor_Science_2000_v288_p1950}.
This policy continues to this day, making it possible for me to pursue my PhD degree in the United States since August 2019.

I would like to thank my advisor Prof.~Darrin M. York for his guidance and support.
Darrin, Dr.~Timothy J. Giese, and I often discuss my research in the office.
This is not the only thing I want to talk about.
In 2021, two years after my going to the United States, I had a serious eye infection.
During that critical moment, my PI Prof.~Darrin M. York and my colleagues Dr.~Solen Ekesan and Dr.~Abir Ganguly took me to the hospital and took care of me.
They said ``we are a family''.
Finnally, my vision was restored.
I am very grateful to them.

Special thanks to my undergraduate advisor Prof.~Tong Zhu, along with my collaborators Dr.~Han Wang and Dr.~Linfeng Zhang, who gave me much help remotely in my research and career opportunities.
Several papers were published where I was the first author, and they were the corresponding authors.
Early this year, when I was seeking a position in China, all of them provided me with valuable advice.
Finnally, I got a tenure-track Assistant Professor offer from
School of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science,
University of Science and Technology of China.

Due to the visa policy from the United States government (especially the Trump government), I have stayed in the United States for all my PhD study.
However, my mother Tong Liu and my father Dr.~Guigen Zeng came to the United States to visit me,
before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively.
It brought me spiritual comfort during my five and a half years of lonely life.
I would like to thank them for their support.

I would like to thank my collaborator Yifan Li, with whom I have visited almost all Chinese restaurants near Edison.
I would also thank people from those Chinese restaurants for providing me with delicious food.

I would like to thank my colleagues in the York Group: Dr.~Timothy J. Giese, Dr.~Tai-Sung Lee, Dr.~Solen Ekesan, Dr.~Patricio Barletta, Dr.~Zeke Piskulich, Dr.~Ryan Snyder, Dr.~Xiao Li, Dr.~Abir Ganguly, Dr.~Mario Fernandez-Pendas, Dr.~Hsu-Chun Tsai, Dr.~Yujun Tao, Lauren Lerew, Erika McCarthy, Pranathi Vaddela, Tejashwini Velicheti, and Shi Zhang.
I would like to thank all my collaborators listed in the authors of ``previous publications''.
I would like to thank all the people who support me spiritually and virtually when I pursue my PhD degree:
members from the DeepModeling open-source community;
my undergraduate classmates, Chen Wang, Junyu Chen, and Zi-han Chen;
anonymous friends from several WeChat groups;
anyone who should be thanked but I forgot to mention.

\noindent
Nov 30, 2024

\end{acknowledgments}