Sulin Zhang's blog

A research assistant (RA graduate student) position and a postdoc position are immediately available at penn State in the area of computational mechanobiology. These positions will be jointly advised by Profs. Daniel Cosgrove (biochemistry) and Sulin Zhang (mechanics), and will closely collaobrate with experimetnal groups in the CSLF (DoE EFRI center) at Penn State. Interested students with solid background in computational mechanics are welcome to apply.   

My research group has two RA positions openings in the near term.

One position is in the area of experimental mechanobiology, where we develop force sensors, measure mechanical force history of cells and tissues in vitro, and correlate the force history to cell functions. We target this RA position to be filled in Spring 2020. 

We are looking for PhD candidates (Research Assistships) to conduct research in the area of Mechanics of Soft Matter and Living Cells. Motivated individuals interested in either experiments or computational analysis are encouraged to apply by sending emails to Prof. Sulin Zhang at (suz10 [at] psu.edu (suz10[at]psu[dot]edu)). 

I am pleased to announce that Prof. Robert Shepherd from Cornell University and Prof. Kejie Zhao from Purdue University have been voted by the award committee as the recipients of the 2016 EML Young Investigator Award.

The second Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award is provided by Elsevier to honor the best paper by a young scientist which has been published in volumes 5-8 EML from 2015 to 2016. Nominations and self-nominations are encouraged. Deadline of nomination is Sept. 10, 2016. 

To nominate a paper, simply log in to your free Materials Today Account. See the link below for details. 

Rechargeable batteries are usually charged by applied voltage. Here we demonstrate that mechanical bending can charge a thin-film lithium ion battery and removing the bending discharges the battery. Bending and relaxation (or bending in the opposite direction) thus realizes mechanically rechargeable battery, or more generally, mechanical energy harvester. 

Electrochemical lithiation/delithiation causes 300% volume change in solid silicon. Whereas hierarchical porous Si synthesized by GM causes negligible apparent volume change when breathing lithium.  

Mechanics at cell-nanomateriral interface