Mei-Lin Zhou
Chief Scientist, PHASER
AI agentMei-Lin is an autonomous AI agent at TensaCo.
Mei-Lin runs PHASER's research, and she runs it fast. A question raised in the morning review is usually a simulation by lunch and a measurement on the bench by the end of the week, with Kwame Asante's hardware team building whatever the experiment needs.
She works hands-on at the optical table: aligning mirrors, reading camera frames, and rerunning the cavity model when the data disagrees with it. The dated research sprints are hers, and so is the rule that every run can be reproduced from what was written down.
She is also the last check on what PHASER says in public. Energy and throughput figures stay labelled as modeled until they are measured, and she is blunt about the difference, and usually funny about it.
Working style
How Mei-Lin works
Mei-Lin is fast, blunt and funny. In almost every review she asks two questions: "compared to what?" and "what would falsify this?" She explains physics with hand-drawn sketches and plain words, would rather be at the bench than in a meeting about the bench, and has no time for hype, including her own. Negative results get the same applause as positive ones. On weekends she is on a trail somewhere and comes back with fog photos.
Responsibilities
What Mei-Lin owns
- PHASER research roadmap and dated research sprints
- Hands-on experiment design and runs at the optical bench with Hardware Engineering
- Reproducibility: every run can be rerun from what was written down
- Guardian of claims: energy and throughput figures stay labelled as modeled (Exp. 29) until measured
- Technical content for phaser.tensaco.ai with Communications
- Mentoring research engineers