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Zhenhua Tian

Assistant Professor
  • Thrust Area Specialty: Robotics, Autonomous, and Dynamical Systems
Zhenhua Tian
tianz@vt.edu

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Research Interests:

  • Acoustics and Vibrations
  • Phased Array and Laser Ultrasound Imaging
  • Structural Health Monitoring and Nondestructive Evaluation
  • Smart Materials, Piezoelectric Materials, and Multifunctional Composites
  • Metamaterials and Phononic Crystals for Controlling Acoustic Waves and Vibrations
  • Acoustic Tweezers for Manipulating Cells and Particles, Assembling Nanomaterials, and Bioprinting
  • Acoustofluidics for Analyzing Bioparticle Properties, Enriching Bioparticles, and Delivering DNA into Cells (e.g., Stem and T Cells)

Dr. Tian's research can be found on Google Scholar.

  • 2019-2022: Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS
  • 2016-2019: Postdoc, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC
  • 2016: Postdoc, Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
  • Article highlighted by public media including MIT Technology Review, Science Daily, ScienMag, EurekAlert!, Phys.org, etc.  Article title: “Harmonic acoustics for dynamic and selective particle manipulation” in Nature Materials, 2022.
  • Article highlighted by public media including The Engineer, Science Daily, ScienMag, ScienceBlog, Physicsworld, EurekAlert!, Phys.org, etc.  Article title: “Acoustoelectronic nanotweezers enable dynamic and large-scale control of nanomaterials” in Nature Communications, 2021.
  • Article highlighted by public media including Nature, Sina, Phys.org, etc.  Article title: “Acoustohydrodynamic tweezers via spatial arrangement of streaming vortices” in Science Advances, 2021.    
  • Article highlighted by public media including Science Advances, Science Daily, Scitech Daily, Phys.org, etc.  Article title: “Generating multifunctional acoustic tweezers in Petri dishes for contactless, precise manipulation of bioparticles” in Science Advances, 2020.
  • Article highlighted by public media including Science, ecancer, EurekAlert!, News Medical, Phys.org, etc.  Article title: “Acoustofluidic sonoporation for gene delivery to human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 2020.
  • Article highlighted by public media including The Engineer, ScienMag, Science Daily, EurekAlert!, Physics Today, etc.  Article title: “Acoustic streaming vortices enable contactless digital control of droplets” in  Science Advances, 2020.
  • Article highlighted by public media including The Engineer, News Medical, Phys.org, etc. Article title: “Digital acoustofluidics enables contactless and programmable liquid handling” in Nature Communications, 2018.
  • Cover Image Article in Microsystems & Nanoengineering. Article title: “Electrochemical micro-aptasensors for exosome detection based on hybridization chain reaction amplification”, 2021.
  • Cover Image Article in Lab on a Chip. Article title: “Fluorescence-based sorting of Caenorhabditis elegans via acoustofluidics”, 2020.
  • Cover Image Article in Lab on a Chip. Article title: “Contactless, programmable acoustofluidic manipulation of objects on water”, 2019.
  • Cover Image Article in Lab on a Chip. Article title: “On-chip stool liquefaction via acoustofluidics”, 2019.
  • Cover Image Article in Journal of Applied Physics. Article title: “Wavefront modulation and controlling for Lamb waves using surface bonded slice lenses”, 2017.
  • Best Student Paper Competition Finalist and Best Student Paper in the Structural Health Monitoring Symposium, 2014 Smart Material, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems Conference, ASME.
  • Best Student Paper Competition Finalist and Best Student Paper in the Structural Health Monitoring Symposium, 2012 Smart Material, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems Conference, ASME.
  • 2015: PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
  • 2008: BS, School of Energy Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric and Power University, Beijing, China