Principal Investigator
Dr. Junpeng Wang
Assistant Professor
Department of Polymer Science
The University of Akron
GDYR 529, Akron, OH 44325-3909
Phone: (330) 972-5345
Email: jwang6 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Junpeng was born and raised in a small town near Xi’an, China, where the Terracotta Army is located. He obtained his B.S. at University of Science and Technology of China in 2010. After that he went to Duke University to work on polymer mechanochemistry with Steve Craig, and obtained his PhD degree in chemistry in 2015. In his PhD studies, Junpeng has designed and synthesized a series of stress-responsive polymers; more importantly, he has quantified the force-induced reactivity and elucidated the mechanisms by applying the technique of single-molecule force spectroscopy to the systems. In 2016, after his PhD studies, he worked as a postdoc with Luping Yu at University of Chicago, where he designed and synthesized a series of porous conjugated polymers and assembled them as the cathode materials for lithium ion batteries. In early 2017, he moved to MIT and worked for Jeremiah Johnson as a postdoc. In the Johnson group, Junpeng has developed a method that allows for the quantification of different orders of cyclic defects in polymer networks and the method enables the accurate prediction of polymer network elasticity. In January 2019, Junpeng started his independent career in the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Akron.[/expand]
Postdoctoral Scientists
Dr. Junfeng Zhou
2019-present
Email: jzhou1 at uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Junfeng was born in Wuhu, Anhui province. He graduated from Anhui Normal University, majoring in Material Chemistry in 2014. He focused on synthesis and characterization of high performance polymers with low dielectric constants in Prof. Qiang Fang’s group, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and obtained his PhD in 2019. In the same year, he joined the Wang lab as a postdoc to pursue his academic interest in mechanochemistry and stress-responsive polymers.[/expand]
PhD Students
Hanlin Chen
2018-present
Email: hc105 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]B.E., Macromolecule Materials and Engineering: 2014-2018 University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui China.[/expand]
Hsin-Wei Su
2020-present
hs140 (at) uakron.edu[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Hsin-Wei was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, which is the biggest city in southern Taiwan. In 2013 he started his B.S. at National Sun Yat-sen University, which is also in Kaohsung, and graduated in 2017. In his undergraduate study, he joined Yeo-Wan Chiang’s group and worked on polymer photonic films. He started his master degree in August 2018 in Polymer Science at University of Akron, under Dr. Junpeng Wang’s guidance, and graduated in May 2020. In August 2020, Hsin-Wei continued his PhD studies in Dr. Wang’s lab. [/expand]
Tze-Gang (Simon) Hsu
2018-present
Email: th164 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Tze-Gang is from Taiwan. He obtained his B.S. in chemistry at National Tsing-Hua University in 2014, and M.S. in applied chemistry at Chiao-Tung University in 2016. His background is characterization and synthesis of organic polymeric solar materials, especially in aromatic systems. Tze-Gang is now conducting his research in mechanochemistry under the supervision of Prof. Wang in the department of polymer science in UAkron. With the polymer science background acquired in Akron, the goal of his is to go deep into the unexplored fundamentals in the intriguing field of mechanochemistry.[/expand]
Zeyu Wang
2020-present
Email: zw27 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Zeyu is from Jiangxi, China. After 3 years as an undergraduate at Donghua University in 2018, he travelled overseas for the 3+2 program at the University of Akron, where he followed Dr. Matthew Becker’s guidance and studied 3D printed hydrogels. He obtained his B.E. from DHU in January 2020 and his M.S. from UA in May 2020. In the fall, he joined Dr. Junpeng Wang’s lab and set to work on stimuli-responsive polymers for his Ph.D. study.[/expand]
Devavrat Sathe
2018-present
Email: ds315 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Devavrat hails from New Delhi, India. He completed his undergraduate education in Polymer Engineering and Technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, in 2018. The same year he joined the doctoral program in Polymer Science at the University of Akron and is pursuing his graduate research in Dr. Junpeng Wang’s lab.[/expand]
Seiyoung Yoon
2020-present
sy78 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”] B.A. Chemistry 2020, Grinnell College, IA. Now studying photodegradable polymers.[/expand]
Master’s Students
Zhen Shi
2019-present
zs71@uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”] B.E., Macromolecule Materials and Engineering: 2016-2020 Shenzhen University (SZU), China [/expand]
Wei Xie
2019-present
wx11 (at) uakron.edu[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”] AMP student (2019.10-present) From Jiangxi, China Started his B.E. (Polymer Science and Engineering) at Sichuan University in 2016 Now exploring polymer mechanochemistry in Dr. Junpeng Wang’s lab[/expand]
JIayi Wang
2019-present
jw314 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]B.E. Chemistry, Institute of Advanced Study 2015-2019 Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.[/expand]
Shiqi Liu
2019-present
sl215 (at) uakron.edu
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at Sichuan University 2016-2019 [/expand]
Undergraduate Students
Erin Sturd
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Erin is a senior undergraduate in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas. At KU, she conducts research in polymer synthesis and characterization. She would like to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering or polymer engineering and work in an industrial setting.[/expand]
Other Members
Ellery
Lab Pet
[expand title=”Read Bio” swaptitle=”Close Bio”]Ellery is proud to be the very first member in the Wang Lab! She has rich research experiences from Duke and MIT, and she is excited to help Junpeng build the lab at Akron.[/expand]
Group Alumni
Rumbila Abdullahi
REU student, summer 2019
Current: undergraduate student, Smith College
Bingze Wu
Visiting student, summer 2019
Current: undergraduate student, University of Science and Technology of China
Xiaomeng Li
Master’s student, 2018-2020
Current: PhD student, University of South Carolina, Chuanbing Tang Group