Shanghai · 31°N
李泽宇
IB student at Pinghe. I study how the Earth holds what we leave in it — then I build tools so other people can see it.
01 About
I'm Zeyu Li, class of 2028 at Shanghai Pinghe School, applying to U.S. undergraduate programs in Earth Science. IB Higher Level is geography, chemistry, physics, and math; the research is cadmium on plastic in soil, lead in irrigation water, and the molecule that paints the sensor. The websites are the public face of the same question.
I founded the Geoscience Club and the pickleball club, preside over Academia, and give tours in the paleontology and mineral galleries at the Shanghai Natural History Museum. On the side: kendo (2nd dan), table tennis, and a robot that won FRC Shanghai.
IB core
Shanghai Pinghe School · 2025–2028
39 / 42
current IB
1520
SAT · 730 / 790
109
TOEFL
Higher Level
Standard Level
02 Work
Each one is a way of looking at the Earth: in a classroom, in the field, and in the soil under a crop.
3D · Classroom
See how the Earth works.
Sixty-two free, browser-based 3D labs for geography and Earth science — seasons, plates, rivers, soils, hazards. No login, no paywall. Built so a teacher can put a full lesson on a projector.
Map · Field guide
A pocket geological field guide.
Two hundred ninety-two sites on a map of China — world-class geoparks, national parks, qualification sites, and ten GSSP golden spikes. Built to go outside with, not stay in a browser tab.
Soil · Diagnosis
Read the land, grow it well.
Photograph the whole plant, a close-up, and the soil surface, then match symptoms against agricultural knowledge — acidification, salinity, compaction, missing nutrients. Lab words from a soil test have a place to land.
03 Lab
If cadmium sticks to agricultural plastic, can a farmer see lead in the ditch, and can I make the dye that says so? Soil chemistry, a portable sensor, then the molecule.
Yingcai Program · Soil chemistry
In a Yangtze Delta soil-solution background I compared virgin agricultural-film LDPE with carboxylated PE-AA, same size fraction, so particle size cannot pretend to be carboxyl density. Binding strength is the gap between EDTA and CaCl₂ desorption on the same Cd-loaded solids — a result that can fail out loud if outer-sphere binding still wins.
Independent · Analytical chemistry
Electrospun PVDF / SP-OH membranes as a low-cost colorimetric platform for Pb²⁺ in irrigation water. Hydrophilicity tuned by strong oxidation and phase-transfer catalysis, then checked with contact angle, FTIR, and the eye — citizen science, not a black box in a university lab.
WashU Pioneer · Prof. Birman
Multi-step synthesis of a functionalized spiropyran built to coordinate heavy metals at mineral–organic interfaces. Same question as the soil and the sensor, one level down: if the membrane is the paper, this is the ink.
04 Field
The same job in four rooms: write a curriculum, walk someone to a vitrine, host a science month, teach a serve.
Founder & president
I founded the club and wrote the curriculum — minerals, plates, Earth's history, Olympiad prep. Earth Month takes it school-wide. The Lighthouse Program is an eight-week course I designed for primary students. Then we leave the building: field trips, lab benches, real rock.
Student docent
Tours in the paleontology and rock & mineral galleries — macroevolution, fossils, crystallization, a planet that does not sit still. Selected to train the next docents. Same work as the websites, only the audience is standing in front of the case.
President
WeChat essays, visiting talks, and a Science Month of labs, 3D-printing workshops, and seminars for more than two hundred students. Literacy across disciplines, not a single subject shrine.
Founder & president
The school's first pickleball club. We converted tennis courts, built a competitive side for regional and national tournaments, and a weekly curriculum from first rally to match play. The other half of the week: less strata, more footwork.
05 Now
Cabinet
Settings
Appearance
Language