Dr. Tang is an assistant professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His Ph.D. thesis study was conducted at MIT under the supervision of Dr. Craig Carter and Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he received an outstanding thesis award for his dissertation “Thermodynamic and Morphological Transitions in Crystalline and Soft Materials Interfaces”. He launched his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where he was first a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow and then Staff Scientist. At LLNL he led projects on mesoscale modeling of lithium-ion battery electrode materials and was also active in research on materials microstructural evolution under extreme radiation conditions. After four and half years with LLNL, he moved to the industrial sector and became a Materials & Corrosion Research Engineer at Shell Technology Center Houston, where he focused on applying materials science and novel technologies to solve practical materials & corrosion problems in the oil & gas industry. He formally joined the Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering at Rice in 2014.
WEBSITE(S)| Mescoscale Materials Science Group | Google Scholar Citations
Research Areas
Dr. Tang’s group is interested in materials phenomena at mesoscale, which bridge between atomistic building blocks and macroscopic properties. The focus of his research is two-fold: 1) advance novel mesoscale modeling techniques such as the phase-field method to enable more faithful and efficient simulation of structural or functional materials over ever increasing length and time scales, and 2) combine simulation (relying heavily on parallel computation), theory and experiment to explain and predict the thermodynamic stability and kinetic evolution of mesoscale-level structures under different stimuli (thermal, electrochemical, radiational, etc.), and apply obtained insights to tailor microstructural features for improved performance. Current research topics include electrochemically driven phase transformations in energy storage materials such as lithium-ion batteries, grain boundary complexion transitions, microstructural evolution in extreme environment and self-assembly kinetics in soft matter systems.
Education
2008 PhD in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2002 M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
1999 B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Teaching Areas
Transport Phenomena
Honors & Awards
2018: DOE Early Career Award, Department of Energy
2018: Rice University School of Engineering Teaching and Research Excellence Award
2017: American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award