Yifan joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside in July 2025 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. Prior to UCR, Yifan was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where she worked within the DOE's Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE), investigating ultrafast terahertz spectroscopy of hybrid semiconductors. Before moving to the U.S., she earned her PhD in Physical Chemistry at Imperial College London, where her research focused on ultrafast charge carrier dynamics in organic semiconductors. 

​

The Dong group focuses on using ultrafast spectroscopy to understand the photophysics of emerging energy materials. The group is particularly interested in studying light-matter interactions and structure-property relationships to elucidate design principles that will facilitate advancement in optoelectronic, spintronic, and quantum devices.