I am a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Virginia researching innovative and sustainable materials and methods for producing multi-functional, multi-scale polymer composites and low-cost, high-performance carbon fiber in the lab of professor Xiaodong (Chris) Li.

I’m excited to be advancing the sustainability of human mobility by discovering advanced materials and processes for weight saving engineering designs.

Research Areas

💪 Multi-Scale Polymer Composites

Reinforcing polymers with fibrous and nanoparticle materials offers improved properties and additional functionalities that can be leveraged for inreased performance or reduced component weight and count. Understanding the interaction between the matrix and reinforcements is crucial to maximizing this effect.

🏎️ Carbon Fibers

I am developing low-cost, high-performance carbon fibers by replacing its conventional precursor material, polyacrylonitrile, with low-cost commodity synthetic polymers or bio-renewable feedstocks.

🌎 Sustainable Manufacturing

Lightweight materials are not inherently sustainable without considering their embodied energy and emissions. Conducting thorough lifecycle analysis can enable holistic evaluations of new technologies, and encourage exploration of alternative production methods such as the replacement of petrochemical solvents with bio-derived alternatives.