Yukun Chen
Senior Research Scientist at Instagram
Menlo Park, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolYukun Chen is a Senior Research Scientist based in Menlo Park with 11 years of experience applying machine learning and information retrieval to large-scale products. After a PhD in Information Science from Penn State and a BSc in Applied Physics from USTC, he progressed from research roles at Oxford and CAS to internships at Google and Facebook focusing on learning-to-rank and code-generation research, and now leads research efforts at Instagram. His work blends rigorous academic foundations with product-driven experimentation in ads ranking, search quality, and user intent understanding, making him adept at translating research into measurable improvements. Known for crossing boundaries between research and engineering, he has repeatedly contributed to production systems at major tech platforms. An understated strength is his track record of internships that targeted core ranking and generation problems, indicating a long-standing focus on bridging language, ranking, and real-world impact.
10 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Applied Physics, Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Applied Physics at University of Science and Technology of ChinaDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Information Science/Studies, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Information Science/Studies at Penn State University
English, Chinese
Github Skills (19)
python10
acceleration10
machine-learning10
reinforcement-learning10
numpy10
deep-learning10
tensorflow10
gpu10
autograd10
neural-network10
tensor10
gpu-acceleration10
flexibility10
data-science9
ml9
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
cykustcc/aggregated_wasserstein_hmm
Jul 2016 - Apr 2017
Contributions:18 commits, 3 pushes in 8 months
cykustcc/categoricalClustDist
Sep 2015 - Feb 2016
Contributions:7 commits, 5 pushes, 1 branch in 4 months
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