Dr. Zhu receives this prestigious ASME award "for outstanding research contributions to the nanomechanics of advanced engineering and energy materials through the synergistic application of fundamental theory, mechanics, materials physics, and multiscale modeling."
This Society-level award was established in 2008 by the Materials Division in ASME to recognize research excellence in the areas of experimental, computational, and theoretical mechanics and materials by young investigators who are within 10 years of their Ph.D. degree. The award will be conferred at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in San Diego in November 2013.
Dr. Bill Wepfer, Chair of the Woodruff School, offers his compliments on Dr. Zhu’s success by stating, “This award is a fantastic recognition of his many accomplishments.”
Dr. Zhu’s research is focused on the nanomechanics of engineering and energy materials. His research encompasses the theory, modeling and application to the advanced materials and nanotechnology. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles. Most notably, in a cover article in Physical Review Letters, he developed a nanomechanics theory that is integrated with the novel atomistic modeling for elucidating the ultra-high strength behavior in metallic nanomaterials. He has also developed a multiscale model to elucidate the deformation mechanism governing the unusual combination of ultra-high strength and high ductility in nanotwinned metals. This work was published as a cover feature article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. Recently, Dr. Zhu and his collaborators have combined the in situ experiment with multiscale chemomechanical modeling to investigate the electrochemically-induced mechanical degradation in lithium-ion batteries, which are crucial to the mass market of electric vehicles. Their research provides novel mechanistic insights and design guidelines for the development of durable energy storage materials.
Dr. Zhu received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004. He joined Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in 2005, after completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. He is currently the associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School, and holds a joint appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.