Yuxin Chen is a Professor of Statistics and Data Science and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), where he has been since 2022. Prior to UPenn, he served as an Assistant Professor at Princeton University (2017–2021) and a postdoc at Stanford University (2015–2017). His research spans machine learning theory , diffusion models , reinforcement learning , nonconvex optimization , and high-dimensional statistics . Education : Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Stanford, 2015) Awards : SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize (2024), IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Prize Paper Award (2024), ICCM Best Paper Award (Gold Medal, 2017), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship His recent work focuses on theoretical foundations of diffusion models , including convergence analysis, generalization behavior, and sampling efficiency. He has developed probability flow distance (PFD) to quantify distributional generalization and explored low-dimensional adaptation in diffusion processes. His research also addresses implicit regularization in nonconvex statistical estimation, with applications to phase retrieval and matrix completion. Key scientific applications of his work include controllable image editing, inverse problems in scientific imaging, and robustness in generative models. Collaborative projects with Prof. Qing Qu and Liyue Shen at ICML 2025 highlight his leadership in bridging theory and practice of generative AI. He has mentored several Ph.D. students who now hold academic positions, including Zihan Zhang (HKUST), Yuchen Zhou (UIUC), Hong Hu (WUSTL), Joshua Agterberg (UIUC), and Yuling Yan (UW-Madison). His grants include Google Research Scholar and Amazon Research Awards, supporting advancements in theoretical foundations of AI.









