Teng Zhang

Associate Professor

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

214 Link Hall

tzhang48@syr.edu

315.443.2969

Degree(s):

  • Ph.D. Brown University, 2015
  • M.S. Dalian University of Technology, 2010
  • B.S. Dalian University of Technology, 2007

Lab/ Center Affiliation:

BioInspired Institute

Areas of Expertise:

  • Solid mechanics
  • Solid Mechanics
  • Mechanics of instabilities
  • Mechanics of interfaces
  • Mechanics of morphing

Dr. Zhang group’s research goal is to solve grand challenges where mechanics can play an important role and harness mechanics as an enabling tool to design smart materials and structures for future sustainability. Built on the core strength of mechanics, my group actively engage in highly interdisciplinary works, such as food design, smart materials, and biofilms. Examples of on-going projects include:

  • Harnessing instabilities and active materials to design reconfigurable structures
  • Bio-inspired hybrid liquid and solid systems enabled by elasto-capillary and hygro-mechanical couplings
  • Mechanics guided shape-changing food

The fundamental mechanics understanding could also provide design principles of robotics and biomedical devices and establish virtual platforms for simulating and controlling them, especially for those with highly nonlinear deformation in complicated working environments (e.g., endovascular neurosurgery and smart catheters).

Honors and Awards:

  • 2021    Soft Matter Emerging Investigator
  • 2019    Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, National Science Foundation
  • 2015    Outstanding thesis, Brown University’s School of Engineering

Selected Publications:

  • Chao Chen, and Teng Zhang. Coupling lattice model and many-body dissipative particle dynamics to make elastocapillary simulation simple. Extreme Mechanics Letters 54 (2022): 101741.
  • Ye Tao, Yi-Chin Lee, Haolin Liu, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Jianxun Cui, Catherine Mondoa, Mahnoush Babaei, Jasio Santillan, Guanyun Wang, Danli Luo, Di Liu, Humphrey Yang, Youngwook Do, Lingyun Sun, Wen Wang, Teng Zhang, and Lining Yao. Morphing Pasta and Beyond.  Science Advances 7, no. 19 (2021): eabf4098.
  • Yi Li, Samuel J. Avis, Junbo Chen, Guangfu Wu, Teng Zhang, Halim Kusumaatmaja, and Xueju Wang. Reconfiguration of multistable 3D ferromagnetic mesostructures guided by energy landscape surveys. Extreme Mechanics Letters (2021): 101428.
  • Oleh Tovkach, Junbo Chen, Monica M. Ripp, Teng Zhang, Joseph D. Paulsen, and Benny Davidovitch. Mesoscale structure of wrinkle patterns and defect-proliferated liquid crystalline phases. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 8 (2020): 3938-3943.
  • Xiaoxiao Zhang, Patrick T. Mather, Mark J. Bowick, and Teng Zhang. Non-uniform Curvature and Anisotropic Deformation Control Wrinkling Patterns on Tori. Soft matter (2019).
  • T. A. Engstrom, Teng Zhang, A. K. Lawton, A. L. Joyner, and J. M. Schwarz. Buckling without bending: a new paradigm in morphogenesis. Physical Review X8, no. 4 (2018): 041053.
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