About

CV | ORCID | GitHub | Bluesky | iNaturalist
youngjun.lee@reuben.ox.ac.uk

My pronouns are they/them.

My name is Jun, and I am a software developer turned biologist. My interest is in ecological modelling, interdisciplinary conservation, and their intersection in the co-design of quantitative models with local communities and application of such models to inform action that supports the lives of both humans and more-than-humans. I am particularly interested in plants and novel ecosystems.

I am a first-year PhD student in the Intelligent Earth Centre for Doctoral Training programme at the University of Oxford, funded by UK Research and Innovation. My current research interest is in the use of machine learning for causal inference in complex ecological datasets and quantification of uncertainty in ecological forecasts. For these problems, I am planning to apply methods such as recurrent neural networks & neural differential equations for time-series predictions, graph neural networks for predicting changes in ecological interaction networks, and explainable AI methods to develop ecological models with both predictive power and interpretability for inference.

Bryophytes first inspired me to study biology, and I continue to enjoy my visits to their small but beautiful worlds. I am a member of the British Bryological Society, from where I have gained much of my bryological knowledge.

Please feel free to contact me to talk about anything from research and public engagement ideas to potential artwork commissions! I am active on the citizen science platform iNaturalist and always happy to help with your observations, particularly bryophytes. Just tag me (@yjkiwilee) in a comment!