When you looked up at the night sky, have you ever thought about that there might be some other creatures living on the stars in the galaxy which are hundreds of millions of light years away while they might also be looking at our planet Earth, wondering the same thing?
Dr. David YU started to get interested in physics since secondary school. In 2009, David earned his B.Sc. in Physics & Astronomy from the Department of Physics of the University of Hong Kong. He believes that physics is the principle of all objects and a language to describe the world. Through it, human beings understand the interactions between substances and energy. Together with the physical observations and studies on the celestial bodies in the universe, tiny little humans like us who live on the Earth can have a grasp of the rules of operation of all things in the universe.
Yet, as a financial city, Hong Kong does not place great emphasis on astronomical development. There is the lack of funding for scientific researches and thus the loss of talents. The dim prospect has made the number of students studying Astronomy continue to diminish. At the beginning of the year, the University of Hong Kong even scrapped its major in Astronomy and a joint Mathematics/Physics major, which gave people the impression that the academia no longer attached importance to Physics and Astronomy.
However, the fact of choosing a non-mainstream major did not hold David back. After pursuing his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Hong Kong, David got his Ph.D. in Germany. Now he is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. Although it is a precious opportunity to be engaged in scientific researches in foreign countries, at the end of the day, David knows that it will not be his long-term job. He just wants to grab every chance and see which direction his career can go.
Apart from conducting scientific researches, David also spends time and energy on science populariz
抬頭望向夜空，你可曾想過銀河系數萬、數億光年以外的星星上，或許會有外星生物也仰望著我們身處的地球，心中也有著同樣的好奇嗎？
余海峯(David)中學時開始對物理學感興趣，2009年在香港大學物理系畢業，同時亦修讀天文學的課程。他認為物理就是萬物之理，是描述世界的一套語言，人類通過物理學了解到物質與能量的交互作用，配合天文學對宇宙間天體的觀察和研究，令身處在地球上渺小的我們，能夠掌握到宇宙萬物的運行法則。
然而，在香港這座金融城市，天文發展得不到重視，科研缺乏資金，也因此留不住人才。既然出路有限，修讀天文的人也就愈來愈少，今年年初，香港大學甚至決定取消天文學、數學及物理學這兩個主修學科，讓人感到似乎學術界不再重視物理學和天文學。
但修讀非主流學科的現實，並沒有令David卻步；他在香港完成學士及碩士課程後，繼而在德國取得博士學位，現時在瑞典皇家理工學院擔任博士後研究員。別以為能在外國做科研是難得的機會，但說到底，David明白這不是一份長久的工作，他只想把握每個機會，看自己的事業可以朝哪個方向發展。
除科學研究以外，David亦會花時間和精神做科學普及方面的工作，希望能多撒下科學的種子，他會聯同其他天文愛好者出版科學書籍，每星期也會在社交媒體以直播形式談論物理天文，凝聚一班喜歡天文的年輕人。
David的長遠目標是回港從事研究及教學的工作，雖說有一腔熱血，但面對眼前的未知數，他也想到需要後備計劃，只是，不情願為這後備計劃定下實施的日期。大概，David相信，只要堅定地向目標前進，這一次，總可以人定勝天。
