Lin Chen

Lin Chen

he/him

B.S. in Stats, SJTU & M.S. in Applied Stats, FDU

Lin Chen

About me

I am Lin Chen (Chinese name: 陈霖, English name: Charlie) at the Master of Applied Statistics program in Fudan University. Currently, I’m a research assistant in Prof. Zhouhan Lin’s group at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an intern in Dr. Wenqi Shao and Prof. Xia Hu’s group at Shanghai AI Laboratory. I just received my bachelor’s degree in Statistics at School of Mathematical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where I work closely with Prof. Samuel Drapeau and Prof. Yiqing Lin. I also collaborate closely with Prof. Mathieu Laurière at NYU Shanghai. Previously, I’ve also interned in Dr. Jie Fu’s group.

I am seeking PhD opportunities for Fall 2027 and summer research internship opportunities for Summer 2026. My research interests include GFlowNets, Reinforcement Learning, LLM post-training, safety and fingerprinting. I’m also quite interested in AI for music. If you think my background matches your group, please contact me via this email address.

Research Interest

My research interests lie at the intersection of mathematical and statistical theory and deep learning. I am particularly interested in leveraging these theoretical insights to advance deep learning algorithms. Specific areas include:

  • GFlowNets: theory and algorithms for probabilistic generative modeling
  • LLM post-training: enhancing the reasoning and memory of large language models
  • LLM intellectual property protection: developing statistical fingerprinting methods for LLMs
  • AI for music: a broader interest motivated by my musical background

Publications

Controlling Exploration–Exploitation in GFlowNets via Markov Chain Perspectives [arXiv]
Lin Chen*, Samuel Drapeau*, Fanghao Shao, Xuekai Zhu, Bo Xue, Yunchong Song, Mathieu Laurière, Zhouhan Lin
In Submission

AWM: Accurate Weight-Matrix Fingerprint for Large Language Models [arXiv][GitHub]
Boyi Zeng*, Lin Chen*, Ziwei He, Xinbing Wang, Zhouhan Lin
ICLR 2026

FlowRL: Matching Reward Distributions for LLM Reasoning [arXiv][GitHub][HuggingFace]
Xuekai Zhu, Daixuan Cheng, Dinghuai Zhang, Hengli Li, Kaiyang Zhang, Che Jiang, Youbang Sun, Ermo Hua, Yuxin Zuo, Xingtai Lv, Qizheng Zhang, Lin Chen, Fanghao Shao, Bo Xue, Yunchong Song, Zhenjie Yang, Ganqu Cui, Ning Ding, Jianfeng Gao, Xiaodong Liu, Bowen Zhou, Hongyuan Mei, Zhouhan Lin
ICLR 2026

Flow of Spans: Generalizing Language Models to Dynamic Span-Vocabulary via GFlowNets [OpenReview][GitHub]
Bo Xue, Yunchong Song, Fanghao Shao, Xuekai Zhu, Lin Chen, Luoyi Fu, Xinbing Wang, Zhouhan Lin
ICLR 2026

* Equal contribution

Honors and awards

  • 2025
    • Outstanding Graduate, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
    • Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis, School of Mathematical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • 2024
    • Merit Student, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • 2023
    • Honorable Mention, Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), COMAP
    • B-class Academic Excellence Scholarship, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • 2022
    • President’s Award (member, SJTU Student Symphony Orchestra), Shanghai Jiao Tong University
    • Second Prize, SJTU Mathematical Modeling Contest, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
    • B-class Academic Excellence Scholarship, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Misc

Outside of research, I have a deep passion for music. Here are some highlights of my musical journey:

  • Started learning piano in kindergarten
  • Served as the piano accompanist for my middle school choir
  • Picked up the double bass in high school and became the principal bassist of my high school orchestra
  • Continued as the principal double bass in SJTU Student Symphony Orchestra throughout my undergraduate years, participating in numerous performances

My favorite composer is Richard Wagner, with Der Ring des Nibelungen being my favorite. Music is a big part of who I am, and it naturally fuels my curiosity about AI for music.