Principle Investigator

Tianli Feng is an assistant professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah. Before his current appointment, he was an R&D Associate Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). [Curriculum Vitae]

Email: tianli.feng@utah.edu           Google scholar citation

Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, 2021 - present
  • R&D Associate Staff Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2020 - 2021
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2017 - 2020

Education

  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 2017
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 2013
  • B.S., Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2011

Ph.D. Students

Janak Tiwari joined our group in Fall 2021 as a Ph.D. Candidate. He received his thesis M.S. degree from the University of Mississippi (with a GPA 4.0) and B.S. from Anna University, India, in 2021 and 2016, respectively. He works on first principles, machine learning, and finite element-based thermal transport simulations.

Hao Zhou joined our group in Fall 2022 as a Ph.D. Candidate. He received his thesis M.S. degree from Zhejiang University (with 2nd rank among grad students) and B.S. from Shandong University (with 1st rank among undergrad students) in 2022 and 2019, respectively. His research focuses on first principles, molecular dynamics, and machine learning-based thermal transport simulations.


Thesis M.S. Students

Rui Xie is a thesis M.S. student in our group (2021-). He received his non-thesis M.S. degree from UC Riverside (with a GPA 4.0) and B.S. from Nankai University in 2019 and 2016, respectively. He works on molecular dynamics simulations of interfacial thermal transport.