Labs: LRSM 212, 214 (215-898-5053), 215, 217, 234 (215-898-6254)
Offices: LRSM 204 (215-898-5138), 216, and 220 (215-898-5276)
Professor Shu Yang
Contact Information
203 LRSM, 3231 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215-898-9645
Fax: 215-573-2128
Email: shuyang@seas.upenn.edu
Education
Ph.D., Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, 1999 (Academic tree: Chemistry)
M.S., Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, 1997
B.S., Materials Science, Fudan University, China, 1992
Employment
2013.7-present
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering; Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UPenn
2009.7-2013.6
Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering; Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UPenn
2004.1-2009.6
Skirkanich Assistant Professor of Materials Innovation, Materials Science and Engineering; Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UPenn
1999.7-2003.12
Honors/DistinctionsMember of Technical Staff, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies
2018, Fellow, Division of Polymeric Materials Science & Engineering (PMSE), American Chemical Society (ACS), “For dedicated service to the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering and pioneering the synthesis and fabrication of responsive nano- and micro structured soft materials”
2017, Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)
2015, recipient of the 2015-16 George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research for "pioneering the synthesis and fabrication of responsive nano- and micro-structured soft materials."
2014, Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
2012, Arthur K. Doolittle Award from the American Chemical Society, Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) for the paper entitled "Understanding pattern transformation mechanisms in different responsive hydrogel membranes."
2011, Invited speaker at Japan-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (Japan).
2011, Invited speaker, Youth Leadership Forum, The 12th Fudan University World Alumni Conference
2005-2011, LRSM IRG-1 Thrust co-leader, “Filamentous Networks & Structured Gels”
2006, NSF/DMR CAREER award
2006-2008, 3M Non-tenured faculty award
2004, TR100 (now TR 35) as one of the world’s top young innovators under age of 35 selected by MIT Technology Review
2004, ACS Presidential Award for IUPAC 40th Anniversary Symposium on Macromolecules
2004, Selected to German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (Germany) by National Academy of Engineering
2003, Bell Labs team for the Technical Insights’ Excellence in Research Award on “Microfluidics in Photonics” selected by Frost and Sullivan
2002, Selected to Frontiers of Engineering Symposium by National Academy of Engineering (NAE) as one of the top 100 young engineers
2001, Unilever Student Award in Polymer Science and Engineering from American Chemical Society (ACS)
1999, ICI Student Award in Applied Polymer Science from American Chemical Society (ACS)
Hyesung Cho
I received my B.S. (2006), M.S. (2008) and Ph.D. degree (2012) in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University (SNU), under the guidance of Prof. Kahp-Yang Suh. After working as a postdoctoral researcher in SNU and Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), I joined Prof. Yang's group in Nov 2015. Here, I will explore Kirigami architectures in soft materials, together with their engineering toward creative applications such as energy efficienty buildings, water harvesting, and optical devices.
Yuchong (Arden) Gao
I graduated from Beihang University, Beijing, China with a B.E. degree majored in Materials Science and Engineering in 2016. I joined Professor Yang's group as a Master student in February 2017 and continue as a Ph.D. student after receiving my M.S. degree from University of Pennsylvania. Taking advantage of varies of fabrication techniques I've learned here, my researches mainly focuses on the fabrication of complex micro/nanostructures using different functional soft materials (UV-crosslinkable polymers, hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers), study their structure-property relationship, and their actuation behaviors for applications such as soft robots, biomimetic materials, and biomedical sensing.
Saihua Jiang
I received B.E. (June. 2009) in Materials Science and Engineering from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) and Ph.D (June. 2014) from State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). From 2012 to 2013, I worked with Prof. Siuming Lo as a joint Ph.D student of City University of Hong Kong. I am currently an Associate Professor in South China University of Technology (SCUT). I joined Prof. Yang’s group as a visiting post-doctoral researcher in December 2017. My research interests here include design and fabrication of heat management fabrics, modification and self-assembly of functional nanoparticle/fibers and their uses in energy storage, and surface science.
Jason Christopher Jolly
I received my B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University, India in 2015 and an M.S.E. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. I joined the Shu Yang Group in late 2015. Taking design cues from nature, art philosophies such as Origami and Kirigami and drawing from my undergraduate mechanical engineering training, I work towards realizing multi-scale, functional material-structure-property systems and architectures with applications in adhesion, drug delivery, cosmetics, radiative cooling and EMI shielding.
Heesuk Jung
I received my B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Yonsei University in 2010 and M.S. degree from Seoul National University in 2012. After graduation, I have worked as a research scientist in Photo-electronic Hybrids Research Center at Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Republic of Korea. I joined Prof. Shu Yang’s group in August 2017. My research interest is synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials and their application for optoelectronic devices.
Hye-Na Kim
I received my B.S. degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (2011), and M.S. degree (2012) from Sogang University. I work on controlling structure of soft material and its surface characteristics, which can be a useful tool in the design of well-ordered structures. I am interested in liquid crystal elastomers (patterning into pillars and porous membranes) and patterning topological defects.
Se-Um Kim (with Randall Kamien)
I received my B.S. and Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering degrees from Seoul National University, South Korea in 2010 and 2016, respectively. From 2016 to 2018, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the same institute. I joined Prof. Shu Yang's group in January 2018. My main interest is programmable deformation and coloration of liquid crystalline materials. My cross-disciplinary research activities include organic electronics and photonics.
Zhiwei Liao (with Daeyeon Lee)
I graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in 2014. I then joined the group and am co-advised by Dr. Daeyeon Lee in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. My research interest is wastewater treatment using nanostructured membranes.
Jiaqi Liu
I received my B.S. degree in Material Chemistry from Fudan University, China in 2016. My research interests are cholesteric liquid crystal microspheres and films with periodic microstructures, their optical properties and applications in photonic devices.
Yuchen Wang
I received B.E. in Materials Science and Engineering from Central South University(CSU) in China (2016) and M.S.E in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Pennsylvania (2018). I joined Prof. Yang’s group in December 2016. My research interests are the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles, control of their assemblies, the resulting optical properties and potential applications in wearable and biomedical sensors.
Yu Xia
I received my B.S. and Master degree from Tsinghua University, China, majoring in Polymer Science. For my PhD research, I mainly focus on design, synthesis and fabrication of polymer microstructures and study cell responses to various geometic patterns and elasticity of the substrates.
Bi Xu
I received my B.E. in Textile Chemistry from Jiangnan University (2004) and Ph.D. in Textile Chemistry from Donghua University (2010). I worked with Dr. Jackie Cai as a joint Ph.D student at the Divsion of Materials Science and Engineering, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (2008-2009). I am currently an associate professor in College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Donghua University. I joined Prof. Yang’s group as a visiting scholar in November 2017. My research interests here include efficient solar-driven steam generation, sufficient water collection and multifunctional textile.
Xu Zhang (with Kate Stebe and Daeyeon Lee)
I received my B.S. degree (2011) in Mechanical Engineering from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and M.S. (2015) and Ph.D. (2016) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University (NCSU). After working as a postdoctoral researcher at University of Maryland, I joined Penn in Oct 2017, co-advised by Prof. Kathleen Stebe, Prof. Daeyeon Lee and Prof. Yang. Here, I will explore the scalable manufacturing of nanostructured membranes for wastewater treatment. My other interests are novel nanolithography techniques, and optical properties of nanostructured materials.
Songnan Zhang
I received my B. S in Textile Engineering from Hebei University of Science & Technology in China (2013). I am currently a Ph.D student in the College of Textile and Clothing Engineering at the Soochow University and joined Prof. Yang’s group since December 2017 as a visiting student. My research focuses on nanomaterial fabrication and its corresponding application of superwettability in energy and environment fields.
Alumni
| PhD degree awarded | |||
| Name | Date | Current Position | Contact |
| Gaoxiang Wu | 12/2016 | Dow Chemical | |
| Yu Xia | 5/2016 | Postdoc, University of Pennsylvania | xiayu@seas.upenn.edu |
| Elaine Lee | 6/2015 | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory | lee1040@llnl.gov |
| Jie Li | 8/2013 | Thin Film Electronics | jie.li@thinfilm.no |
| Chi-Mon Chen | 8/2013 | Intel | |
| Apiradee Honglawan | 12/2012 | ||
| Xuelian Zhu | 5/2011 | Principal Engineer, Global Foundries | xuelian.zhu@globalfoundries.com |
| Yongan Xu | 11/2009 | Advisory Engineer/Scientist-Dev, IBM | xuy@us.ibm.com |
| Dinesh Chandra | 8/2009 | Scientist, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co | |
| Marla McConnell | 8/2009 | US Patent Office | |
| Jamie Ford | 3/2009 | Staff, UPenn | tjford@seas.upenn.edu |
| Ying Zhang | 9/2008 | Sr. Research Scientist, Organic and Biochemical Technologies, Corning Inc. | zhangy6@corning.com |
| Master degree awarded | |||
| Name | Date | Current Position | Contact |
| Evan Dolling | 6/2018 | ||
| Xinyue Zhang | 5/2017 | PhD student, Cornell Univ. | |
| Xinghan Sheng | 5/2017 | PhD student, Boston Univ. | |
| Philip Nega | 5/2017 | ||
| Huseyin Kaya | 12/2016 | PhD student, Penn State Univ. | |
| Kaiyang Yin | 5/2016 | PhD student, Dartmouth College | |
| Bo Cao | 5/2015 | PhD student, University of Washington | |
| Sachin Deshpande | 5/2015 | ||
| Minquan Wang | 5/2015 | ||
| Yubo Zhao | 5/2015 | ||
| Qiyi Chen | 5/2014 | PhD student, Case Western Reserve | |
| Kyudong (Ryan) Noh | 5/2014 | ||
| Chenbo Wang | 5/2014 | PhD student, University of Texas A & M | |
| Yongwei Zheng | 5/2014 | PhD student, Materials Sci & Eng., Drexel University | |
| John Farrell | 5/2011 | Associate Product Development Engineer, Acushnet Company | |
| Chang-Lung (John) Chiang | 5/2011 | ||
| Chien-Lin (Johnny) Lai | 5/2011 | photolithography manufacturing engineer, TDK | |
| Cheng-Hsin Lu | 5/2010 | PhD student, Materials Sci & Eng., Drexel Univ. | chlu@drexel.edu |
| Shih-Chieh Cheng | 5/2009 | ||
| Yung-Ta Sung | 5/2009 | PhD student, Electr. & Computer Eng, University of Wisconsin, Madison | ysung2@wisc.edu |
| Chia-Tai Lin | 12/2008 | TSMC R&D, Taiwan | |
| Feng-Mei Huang | 12/2008 | ||
| Yu Yang | 12/2008 | ||
| Miriam Berdichevsky | 9/2007 | ||
| Jin Seok Seo | 8/2007 | Kum-Gang Korea Chemical Company | sijs30@kccworld.co.kr |
| Yu-Tun Shen | 5/2007 | ||
| Chi-Wei Lo | 5/2006 | Applied Materials | |
| Kuang-Sheng Hong | 5/2005 | ||
| Postdoc Fellows | |||
| Name | Date | Current Position | Contact |
| Weerapha Panatdasirisuk | 6/2018 | ||
| Alei Dang | 4/2018 | Assist. Research Fellow, Northwestern Polytechnical University | |
| Francesca Serra | 10/2016 | Assist. Prof., Dept of Physics, Johns Hopkins Univ. | |
| Younghyun Cho | 2/2016 | Senior scientist, Korea Institute of Energy Research. | |
| Dengteng Ge | 11/2015 | Faculty, Dong Hua University | |
| Yigil Cho | 9/2015 | Samsung Electronics | |
| Mohamed Amine Gharbi | 7/2014 | Assist Prof., Dept. of Physics, UMass Boston | mohamed.gharbi@umb.edu |
| Su Yeon Lee | 9/2014 | Senior scientist, Korean Research Institute of Chemical Technology | |
| Yudi Rahmawan | 8/2013 | Professor, Surya University, Indonesia | |
| Raghuraman G. Karunakaran | 12/2010 | ||
| Guan-quan Liang | 5/2010 | Staff, University of Pittsburgh | |
| Rong Dong | 1/2010 | Senior scientist, Colgate-Palmolive | rong_dong@colpal.com |
| Krishnacharya Khare | 9/2009 | Assoc. Prof., Dept of Physics, IIT Kanpur, India | kcharya@iitk.ac.in |
| Yue Cui | 10/2008 | Assist. Prof. Peking Univ. | |
| Murat Guvendiren | 6/2008 | Assist. Prof., New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) | murat.guvendiren@njit.edu |
| Pei-Chun Lin | 7/2007 | Prof., Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan | peichunlin@ntu.edu.tw |
| Tongxin Wang | 3/2007 | Assoc. Prof., Howard Univ. | twang@howard.edu |
| Jun Hyuk Moon | 1/2007 | Prof., Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Sogang University, Korea | junhyuk@sogang.ac.kr |
| Shuhui Qin | 4/2006 | Sr. Development Chemist, Henkel Adhesives | Shuhui.Qin@us.henkel.com |
| Visiting Scientists | |||
| Name | Date | Current Position | Contact |
| Chantal Badre | 8/2009 | CNRS/Rhodia | Chantal.Badre-contractor@us.rhodia.com |
| Hanjie Wang | 7/2012 | Lecturer, Tianjian Univ., China | wanghj@tju.edu.cn |
| Liping Zhu | 2/2013 | Assoc Prof., Zhejiang Univ. China | lpzhu@zju.edu.cn |
| Lili Yang | 2/2014 | Assoc. Prof., Harbin Institute of Technology | liliyang@hit.edu.cn |
| Youfa Zhang | 2/2014 | Assoc. Prof., Southeast Univ of China | yfzhang@seu.edu.cn |
| Xiaoming Yang | 1/2016 | Assoc. Prof., Soochow Univ. | yangxiaoming@suda.edu.cn |
| Undergraduate Students | (REU) | ||
| Name | Stay | School from | Notable mention |
| Alex Senko | 6/-8/2012 | Cornell Univ. | |
| Yonghoon Choi | 6/-8/2011 | UNIST (S Korea) | |
| Justin Deng | 6/-8/2010 | Cornell Univ. | |
| Priya Balasubramanian | 6/-8/2010 | Duke Univ. | 'best all-around' presentation in the NBIC/REU program |
| Kelvin Wong | 6/-8/2010 | UPenn | |
| Stephanie Ezeoba | 6/-8/2009 | Bryn Mawr College | |
| Tammer Ghaly | 6/-8/2009 | Johns Hopkins Univ. | |
| Junhao Zhou | 6/-8/2008 | Bard College | |
| Jason Reed | 2007, 2008 & 2009 | Cornell Univ. | E.W. Plummer award for best paper in Physics in LRSM/REU program |
| Billy Yau | 6/-8/2006 | Cornell Univ. | |
| Joshua S. Moskowitz | 6/-8/2005 | Cornell Univ. | E.W. Plummer award for best paper in Engineering in LRSM/REU program |
| Zachary Samuels | 6/-8/2004 | Cornell Univ. | E.W. Plummer award for best paper in Engineering in LRSM/REU program |