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Zhiting Tian

Associate Professor

Eugene A. Leinroth Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow

Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Zhiting Tian
Zhiting Tian

Biography

Dr. Zhiting Tian directs the ZT Research Group, specializing in both computational modeling and experimental characterization of energy transport. She joined the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering on July 1, 2018, with the added title of Eugene A. Leinroth Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. Between 2014 and 2018, she was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Research Interests

Micro/nanoscale heat transfer; thermal energy conversion and storage; thermal management; multiscale thermal transport in organic, inorganic, and hybrid materials; quantum computing; and biomedical engineering.

  • Materials Design
  • Energy and the Environment
  • Micro Nano Systems
  • Advanced Manufacturing and Materials

Teaching Interests

Introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Nanoscale Energy Transport and Conversion, Future Energy Systems, Atomistic Modeling of Materials

Select Publications

  • C. Li, H. Ma, T. Li, J. Dai, J. Rasel, A. Mattoni, A. Alatas, M. Thomas, Z. Rouse, S. Baker, J. Feser, D. Mitzi, Z.T. Tian, “Remarkably Weak Anisotropy in Thermal Conductivity of Two-Dimensional Hybrid Perovskite (C4H9NH3)2PbI4 Crystals”, Nano Letters 21(9), 3708–3714 (2021)

  • H. Ma, Z. Aamer, Z.T. Tian, “Ultrahigh Thermal Conductivity in Three-Dimensional Covalent Organic Framework”, Materials Today Physics 21,100536 (2021)

  • J. Dai, and Z.T. Tian, “Rigorous Formalism of Anharmonic Atomistic Green’s Function for Three-dimensional Interfaces”, Physical Review B: Rapid Communications 101, 041301(R) (2020)

  • H. Ma, C. Li, Y. W. Ma, H. Wang, Z.W. Rouse, Z. Zhang, C. Slebodnick, A. Alatas, S.P. Baker, J.J. Urban, and Z.T. Tian, “Super Compliant and Soft (CH3NH3)3Bi2I9 Crystals with Ultralow Thermal Conductivity”, Physical Review Letters 123, 155901 (2019)

  • H. Ma and Z.T. Tian, “Significantly High Thermal Rectification in an Asymmetric Polymer Molecule Driven by Diffusive versus Ballistic Transport”, Nano Letters 18, 43-48 (2018)

Zhiting Tian's Google Scholar

Select Awards and Honors

  • DARPA Young Faculty Award 2023
  • DOD DURIP Award 2022
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Award 2021
  • NASA Early Stage Innovations Award 2021
  • Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2019
  • PMSE Young Investigator 2019
  • MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 China 2019
  • College of Engineering Faculty Fellow, Virginia Tech 2018
  • Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award 2018
  • NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation 2017
  • ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award 2017
  • Outstanding New Assistant Professor, College of Engineering, Virginia Tech 2016

Education

  • B.E., Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University 2007
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Binghamton University 2009
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014

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