Principal Investigator
Penghui Cao
Associate Professor 2024 – present
Assistant Professor 2019 – 2024
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of California, Irvine
Postdoctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014 – 2018
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, 2010 – 2014
Postdoctoral Associate
Dr. Bijun Xie
Postdoctoral Scholar, 08/2022 – present
Ph.D. from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2021
Email: bijunx@uci.edu
Research interests: In-situ SEM, TEM imaging
Dr. Grace Lu
Postdoctoral Scholar, 08/2025 – present
Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 2025
B.S. Physics & Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2018
Email: lugm@uci.edu
Graduate Students
Wanjuan Zou
Ph.D. student, 09/2022 – present
BS/MS, Wuhan University of Technology, 2020/2022
Email: wanjuanz@uci.edu
Arman Ter-Petrosyan
Ph.D. student, 09/2024 – present
BS in Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 2023
Email: ahterpet@uci.edu
William McKinney
Ph.D. student, 09/2024 – present
BS in Mechanical Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona, 2024
Email: mckinnew@uci.edu
Caleb Chen
Ph.D. student, 09/2025 – present
BS in Material Science and Engineering, University of California, Riverside, 2025
Email: jialec10@uci.edu
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Group Alumni
Dr. Bin Xing, Ph.D., 09/2025. Currently Postdoctoral Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr. Hangman Chen, Ph.D., 06/2025. Currently an R&D Engineer in the technology industry.
Dr. Xinyi Wang, Ph.D., 09/2023. Currently Postdoctoral Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL).
Dr. Zhao Fan, Postdoctoral Scholar, 2021-2022. Currently Postdoctoral Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL).
Kourosh Jafari Ghalejooghi, MSc, Fall 2025
Triet Ho, Undergraduate Researcher, 09/2022-12/2023, Currently Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Kevin Gellerman, MSc, 06/2024
Max Phan, Undergraduate Researcher, 09/2022-07/2023. Currently Science Undergraduate Laboratory Intern at National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Lihao Shi, MSc, 04/2023. Currently Ph.D. student in Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Han Wang, MSc, 12/2022. Currently Mechanical Engineer at Kaman Corporation, California
Victoria Feng, Undergraduate Researcher, 04/2021-04/2022. Currently graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Irvine
Harper Xu, Undergraduate Researcher, 04/2021-01/2022. Currently graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
Abraham Mercado, Undergraduate Researcher, 04/2021-09/2021
Adam Asher, Undergraduate Researcher, 04/2021-08/2021
Liming Zhao, MSc, 06/2020. Currently Ph.D. student in School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University
Syamal Praneeth Chilakalapudi, Visiting PhD Student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Sicong Ma, Undergraduate Researcher, 03/2020-09/2020
Dr. Pengfei Wang, Visiting Scholar, 10/2019-03/2021. Currently Associate Professor, University of Science and Technology of China